Samsung brings Android 13 to the S22 after two months of waiting

After releasing Android 12L last month, Samsung is shipping its first completed builds of Android 13 this week. The Galaxy S22 (regular, Plus, and Ultra) is the first phone to get the update, and carriers like Verizon are listing the update as available.

Samsung’s September Android 12L release arrived six months after its official release on foldables and tablets, and this Android 13 release represents a two-month wait from Google’s release. Part of the reason for the fast turnaround may be that Android 13 is a very minor release, with only things like notification permission and a new media player to refer to as user-centric features. The Galaxy S22 never got Android 12L, so this is the first major OS update.

Samsung’s Android 13 skin is called “One UI 5” and the company described some of its features earlier this month. Samsung’s main additions are “Bixby Text Call”, which allows you to answer a call and speak to the caller via text-to-speech. A “Routines” function can automatically activate functions based on the time of day. You can set a video as your wallpaper background and you can stack widgets on top of each other to swipe through.

Android 13 only touches the S22 for now. 9to5Google saw a timeline that Samsung sent to Korean users detailing the Korean releases of Android 13 for various models. Korean timelines aren’t always the same as American schedules, but they usually come close. That timeline has the S20, S21, Fold/Flip 3 and Fold/Flip 4 updating in November, with older and midrange devices moving to December and January.