Android 13 Will Let Devs Disable App Previews In Multitasking Screen

To elaborate, when you enter the multitasking screen, in order for your phone to display that app’s most recent state, it essentially takes a screenshot. However, there are apps that don’t allow screenshots like certain video streaming apps and financial apps. As a side effect of disabling screenshots, the multitasking view can’t display the app preview.

However, Android 13 will let devs only disable the app preview

In order to disable screenshots on Android now, you’ll need to use the SECURE_FLAG. However, according to Esper, Android 13 introduced the setRecentsScreenshotEnabled API. This will allow developers to disable the app preview but retain the ability to take screenshots. Why would this feature be helpful? Well, there are apps that display sensitive data at certain points. If you’re scrolling through your recently used apps, it’s possible that a person could see this data. For instance, if you recently visited your banking app, you wouldn’t want to have your bank account information shown by accident. However, you’ll still want the ability to take screenshots of your account information. Also, there are some privacy-focused browsers out there that offer secure browsing using decentralized networks. While you’d want the ability to screenshot whatever content you’re viewing, you won’t want other people to see what you’re looking at on the multitasking screen. There are other use case scenarios where this feature will come in handy. More information on this addition should come out with future previews and betas.

In Other Android 13 News: Android 13 Will Allow Full Spatial Audio Support

Spatial audio is a well sought-after feature for people who want more from their audio experience. While Android 12L has partial support for spatial audio, full support is coming to Android 13. Not only will there be spatial audio, but it’s going to support head tracking. This means that the audio will change based on what direction your head is facing. This will make the audio experience more immersive than with traditional audio.