A number of readers around these parts are a part of the Android Beta Program and were likely running an Android 13 beta before updating to today’s stable build. In case you were curious, it’s still very cool to remain in the Android Beta Program going forward, because there will be new beta updates for Android 13 in the coming weeks.
On reddit, the Android team posted to the Android_Beta subreddit to announce the rollout of Android 13 and offer some clear answers about the future of betas. Here’s what we know.
The next Android 13 Beta update
The Android 13 Beta Program will continue and you can stay in it going forward if you want to test new releases. The next Android 13 beta release will bring us back into a Quarterly Platform Release (QPR) test period, with the first arriving in September.
What’s a QPR? Well, we started testing these this year with Android 12. The June Android update was a QPR3 and offered a ton of tweaks and bug fixes to the platform. Once released to everyone, it also happened to be a Pixel Feature Drop update. For Android 13 betas, we’ll be starting our testing with a similar QPR build. In short, a QPR is a bigger-than-usual platform update than just a typically monthly security patch that could offer new features, but is also there to squash all sorts of bugs.
If you stay in the Android Beta Program, you will automatically get the next Android 13 beta in September.
Unenrolling from Android Beta
Let’s say you don’t want to keep testing Android 13 beta builds, how do you get out? Pretty easy. Once you get the stable update to Android 13, you will need to head over to the Android Beta site (here) and click the “Opt out” button under your device. It’s really that simple.
There is one thing to keep in mind – if you want to opt-out, you should do so soon after receiving the official Android 13 update. As long as you opt-out before that first Android 13 QPR1 update, you can unenroll without your phone asking you to factory reset. If you wait until that first QPR1 update hits and decide to exit the program, you’ll have to fully wipe your phone.
And that’s it! You can keep testing Android 13 beta builds if you want or you can opt-out of the program once you get the official Android 13 update.