Android 13 Wait a little longer, the next Android version will be Android 12.1

September 9 news Google has launched multiple developer previews of Android 12, and the official version will be launched soon. According to XDA, Google may have lied about the next version of Android.

According to the latest exposed documents, the next version of Android may be a minor update to Android 12, which is expected to be released in a few weeks and will be called Android 12.1.

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Recently, Google released the fifth developer preview of Android 12, which is the final beta version before the stable update is launched. Before the release, Google recommends that developers update their apps to target API level 31, which is the framework API provided by Android 12. The previous Android 11 corresponds to API level 30, and the previous API level is 29, which corresponds to Android 10.

Generally speaking, each new API level is accompanied by a major upgrade in the Android version number, with the only exception being API level 20, which corresponds to the Android 4.4 KitKat version dedicated to wearable devices. Therefore, if we find that Google has increased the API level, we can assume that the version number will also increase by 1.

However, XDA found some evidence in the AOSP Gerrit that API level 32 corresponds to Android 12 "sc-v2" rather than Android 13 T.

In the latest code change, Google changed the API level at which the new NDK APIs are first provided from 32 to 33, citing "there are currently no planned NDK APIs in sc-v2-dev." This indicates that API level 33 corresponds to Android 13 T, which is two API levels higher than the upcoming Android 12 version (API level 31).

The "sc" in "sc-v2" most likely refers to "snow cone (shaved ice, the code name for Android 12)", which means that Google will release a minor version update between Android 12 and Android 13, most likely Android 12.1. It is also possible that the version number will remain unchanged, but only the API level will be increased.

Google hasn’t released a decimal point update since Android 8.1 Oreo in 2017. If Google is indeed developing Android 12.1, it may be launched with the Pixel 6 series of phones.