Google has announced that the Pixel phones will start receiving Android 13, this year's major Android upgrade, today. After the official releases of Android 12 in October of last year and Android 11 in September of the following year, the yearly upgrade is being made available a bit earlier than normal.

If you've been following Android 13's beta releases, you may be aware with the list of enhancements that will be included in this year's version of Android. A new permission to reduce notification spam, a new choice to restrict which of your photographs and videos an app may access, and the ability to match non-Google app icons to your homescreen background are all included in Android 13's first developer beta.

In our article from January, we stated that Google intended to use this year to catch up with Apple's ecosystem connections. The official release of Android 13 provides more proof of this. With compatible headphones on and head tracking enabled, the update adds support for spatial audio with head tracking, a function similar to Apple's AirPods that makes sounds seem to be originating from a fixed place in space as you move your head. Although Google previously said it will update its Pixel Buds Pro to accommodate spatial audio, today's article doesn't specifically state which headphones this will work with.

Second, like iMessage on the Mac, communications from programs like Google Messages may be streamed straight to a Chromebook. It's an additional function that Google described in January. The functionality will work with "many of your other favorite messaging applications," according to Google, and it is demonstrated functioning with Signal in one of its advertising materials in addition to the company's own Messages app. Another feature of the upgrade allows you to copy material from an Android phone and paste it on an Android tablet and vice versa.

Additional features of Android 13 include a media player that changes how it looks depending on what you're listening to, Bluetooth Low Energy support for better sound quality at lower bitrates and reduced latency, enhanced multitasking on large-screen devices with drag and drop support for multitasking, and improved palm rejection when using styluses.

Google outlined which Pixels (the Pixel 4, 5, and 6 families of smartphones) will receive the Android 13 update today on this support website, along with a lengthy list of changes it contains. A developer page where you may obtain the images before the update is automatically delivered to your device also warns that updating to Android 13 with a factory image is a one-way journey since it comes with a bootloader upgrade that prevents you from flashing back to Android 12.

You may find additional details in this blog post if you are a developer or were a participant in the Android 13 beta. Everyone in the test will receive the final version of Android 13 and then continue to be registered in the beta to receive updates for forthcoming feat