Like earlier releases, Android 13 includes behavior changes that may affect your app. The following behavior changes apply exclusively to apps that are targeting Android 13 or higher. If your app is targeting Android 13 or higher, you should modify your app to support these behaviors properly, where applicable.
Be sure to also review the list of behavior changes that affect all apps running on Android 13.
Privacy
Notification permission affects foreground service appearance
If the user denies the notification permission, they still see notices related to these foreground services in the Foreground Services (FGS) Task Manager but don't see them in the notification drawer.
New runtime permission for nearby Wi-Fi devices
On previous versions of Android, the user needs to grant your app the
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
permission in order to complete several common Wi-Fi use cases related to
hotspots, Wi-Fi Direct connections, Wi-Fi RTT, and more.
Because it's difficult for users to associate location permissions with Wi-Fi
functionality, Android 13 (API level 33) introduces a new runtime permission in
the
NEARBY_DEVICES
permission group for apps that manage a device's connections to nearby access
points over Wi-Fi. This permission,
NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES
,
fulfills these Wi-Fi use cases.
As long as your app doesn't derive physical location information from the Wi-Fi
APIs, request NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES
instead of ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION
when you
target Android 13 or higher and use Wi-Fi APIs. This process is
similar to the one you do in Android 12 (API level 31) and higher when you
assert that Bluetooth device information is never used for
location.
Learn more about the nearby Wi-Fi devices permission.
Granular media permissions
READ_MEDIA_AUDIO
permission.If your app targets Android 13, you must request one or more new
permissions instead of the
READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
and
WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
permissions.
The set of permissions that you request depends on the type(s) of media that your app needs to access:
Type of media | Permission to request |
---|---|
Images and photos | READ_MEDIA_IMAGES |
Videos | READ_MEDIA_VIDEO |
Audio files | READ_MEDIA_AUDIO |
If the user previously granted your app the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
permission,
the system automatically grants each of the new permissions to your app.
Otherwise, the system shows a user-facing dialog when your app
requests any of the permissions shown in the preceding table. In figure 1, the
app requests the READ_MEDIA_AUDIO
permission. If you request both the
READ_MEDIA_IMAGES
permission and the READ_MEDIA_VIDEO
permission at the same
time, only one system permission dialog appears.
Migration steps when you target Android 13
After you target Android 13, declare the media permissions that
your app needs. To maintain compatibility with older versions of Android,
declare the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
permission while setting maxSdkVersion
to
32
, as shown in the following code snippet:
<manifest ...> <!-- Required only if your app targets Android 13. --> <!-- Declare one or more the following permissions only if your app needs to access data that's protected by them. --> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_IMAGES" /> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_AUDIO" /> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_MEDIA_VIDEO" /> <!-- Required to maintain app compatibility. --> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" android:maxSdkVersion="32" /> <application ...> ... </application> </manifest>
Use of body sensors in the background requires new permission
Android 13 introduces the concept of "while in use" access for body sensors, such as heart rate, temperature, and blood oxygen percentage. This access model is very similar to the one that the system introduced for location in Android 10 (API level 29).
If your app targets Android 13 and requires access to body sensor
information while running in the background, you must declare the new
BODY_SENSORS_BACKGROUND
permission in addition to the existing
BODY_SENSORS
permission.
Security
Intent filters block non-matching intents
When your app sends an intent to an exported component of another app that
targets Android 13 or higher, that intent is delivered if and
only if it matches an <intent-filter>
element in the receiving app.
Non-matching intents are blocked.
Exceptions where intent matching isn't enforced:
- Intents delivered to components that don't declare any intent filters.
- Intents originating from within the same app.
- Intents originating from the system; that is, intents being sent from the
"system UID" (uid=1000). System apps include
system_server
and apps that setandroid:sharedUserId
toandroid.uid.system
. - Intents originating from root.
If a receiving app upgrades to Android 13 or higher, all intents
originating from external apps are delivered to an exported component if and only
if it matches its declared <intent-filter>
elements, regardless of the sending
app's target SDK version.
Performance and battery
Battery Resource Utilization
If the user places your app in the "restricted" state for background battery usage while your app targets Android 13, the system applies several limitations related to broadcasts.
Learn more about the new limitations for restricted background battery usage on the page that describes the Battery Resource Utilization features being introduced in Android 13.
User experience
Media controls derived from PlaybackState
For apps targeting Android 13 (API level 33) and higher, the system derives
media controls from
PlaybackState
actions. This
allows the system to show a richer set of controls that are technically
consistent between phones and tablet devices, and also align with how media
controls are rendered on other Android platforms such as Android Auto and
Android TV.
Figure 2 shows an example of how this looks on a phone and tablet device, respectively.

Prior to Android 13, the system displayed up to five actions from the MediaStyle
notification in the order in which they were added.
In compact mode—for example, in the collapsed quick settings—up to
three actions specified with setShowActionsInCompactView()
were shown.
Starting with Android 13, the system displays up to five action buttons based
on the PlaybackState
as described in the following table. In compact mode, only the first three
action slots will be displayed. For apps that don't target Android 13 or those
that don't include a PlaybackState
, the system will display controls based on
the Action
list added to the MediaStyle
notification as described in the
previous paragraph.
Slot | Action | Criteria |
---|---|---|
1 | Play |
Current state of the PlaybackState is one of the following:
|
Loading spinner |
Current state of the PlaybackState is one of the following:
|
|
Pause | Current state of the PlaybackState is none of the above. |
|
2 | Previous | PlaybackState actions include ACTION_SKIP_TO_PREVIOUS . |
Custom | PlaybackState actions do not include ACTION_SKIP_TO_PREVIOUS and PlaybackState custom actions include a custom action that hasn't been placed yet. |
|
Empty | PlaybackState extras include a true boolean value for key SESSION_EXTRAS_KEY_SLOT_RESERVATION_SKIP_TO_PREV . |
|
3 | Next | PlaybackState actions include ACTION_SKIP_TO_NEXT . |
Custom | PlaybackState actions do not include ACTION_SKIP_TO_NEXT and PlaybackState custom actions include a custom action that hasn't been placed yet. |
|
Empty | PlaybackState extras include a true boolean value for key SESSION_EXTRAS_KEY_SLOT_RESERVATION_SKIP_TO_NEXT . |
|
4 | Custom | PlaybackState custom actions include a custom action that hasn't been placed yet. |
5 | Custom | PlaybackState custom actions include a custom action that hasn't been placed yet. |
Custom actions are placed in the order in which they were added to the
PlaybackState
.
Updated non-SDK restrictions
Android 13 includes updated lists of restricted non-SDK interfaces based on collaboration with Android developers and the latest internal testing. Whenever possible, we make sure that public alternatives are available before we restrict non-SDK interfaces.
If your app does not target Android 13, some of these changes might not immediately affect you. However, while you can currently use some non-SDK interfaces (depending on your app's target API level), using any non-SDK method or field always carries a high risk of breaking your app.
If you are unsure if your app uses non-SDK interfaces, you can test your app to find out. If your app relies on non-SDK interfaces, you should begin planning a migration to SDK alternatives. Nevertheless, we understand that some apps have valid use cases for using non-SDK interfaces. If you cannot find an alternative to using a non-SDK interface for a feature in your app, you should request a new public API.
To learn more about the changes in this release of Android, see Updates to non-SDK interface restrictions in Android 13. To learn more about non-SDK interfaces generally, see Restrictions on non-SDK interfaces.