The Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will almost certainly be the first phones to ship with Android 13, but some older phones may update to Android 13 before those devices launch, as we’re likely to see the next Pixel models in October, while Android 13 is now almost certain to arrive in September.
The latest data on this comes from Google August safety data sheet (opens in new tab)which – as he identified Droid Life (opens in new tab) – notes that Android 13 “will have a default security patch level of 2022-09-01”.
Since Google releases security patches every month, this suggests that Android 13 will be released in September, as otherwise, it would likely have a default security patch level from another month.
That said, this is the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) build, which is not the build pushed to most smartphones. This can sometimes come later, but most years Pixel phones get the update on the same day as the AOSP build, so if you have a Pixel 6 or other Pixel phone that’s still supported, then there’s a very good chance you’ll get Android 13 September.
The exact arrival date is less clear, but Droid Life speculates that we could see Android 13 on September 6, as Google often pushes updates on the first Monday of the month, and while September 5 is that Monday, that’s also the Labor Day , so moving it to Tuesday would make sense.
Of course this is just speculation at the moment, and while Pixel owners may see Android 13 then, most other devices will get it weeks or even months later, as is typical with Android updates.
Analysis: lots of data for September
This is indisputable proof that we will see Android 13 in September, but then a September release always seemed possible.
The biggest previous evidence of this came from Google’s Android 13 roadmap, which has long suggested that September would be when the final version would land. Technically September doesn’t have a name, but given the distance on the chart, it looks like September was the target, as you can see in the image above.
The only real evidence that we wouldn’t see it in September is that Android 12 didn’t launch until October of last year, but Android 11 and Android 10 both appeared in September of their release years. So September looks very likely, bringing it head-to-head with iOS 15.
