Get ready to boot up that first-gen Google Pixel
Android 13 is, presumably, just weeks away, with rumors pointing to a September launch. That might be a little later than most of us expected — especially considering the final beta version shipped in July. As an update primarily focused on privacy and security, getting it on your phone might not seem as exciting as, say, Android 12’s Material You redesign was last year. Among some of Android 13’s more obvious changes is a new photo picker, but even if you’re rocking years-old hardware, you might not need a software update to get it.
If you’re using a device running Android 11 or later, you technically already have access to Android 13’s photo picker — no upgrade required. Back in May, the company rolled out the feature to all devices running Android 11, 12, or 12L through a Play System Update after it first appeared in the Android 13 beta earlier this year. Now, that said, if you haven’t noticed Google’s new photo picker, it’s because apps need an update to support the feature.
It’s impressive enough that a brand-new feature — one rooted in privacy, allowing you to limit which photos are shared with applications — has already arrived on older versions of Android, but Google isn’t stopping there. As spotted by Esper.io’s Mishaal Rahman, the company is working on bringing it to even older devices — phones and tablets that aren’t even running Android 11.
Rahman determined this after a version of Play Services built for API 28 — the API level associated with Android 9 Pie — added support for users to give applications read-only access to user-selected, specific photos temporarily. The wording in Google’s Play System Updates mentioned it was a backward-compatible version of software available in Android 11 or higher. While this phrasing didn’t guarantee Google was referencing its new photo picker, Rahman found evidence of it in that Play Services APK meant for API level 28.
Of course, Google has since removed the language from its System Updates patch notes, which could mean it’s not coming to older devices after all. Whether or not Android 13’s photo picker actually arrives on your aging hardware remains to be seen, but it seems like — at the very least — the company is looking into making it happen. Porting new features to old software could be another way Google combats fragmentation, even while releasing a new version of Android every year.
