Google will bring the image and media picker feature of Android 13 to old mobiles

One of the most interesting novelties of Android 13 will be available on models that will not receive the update. Not all mobile phones on the market will receive Android 13, but that does not mean that Google has forgotten about old smartphones that, for one reason or another, will not be compatible with the expected system update. In fact, some of the Android 13 news will eventually trickle down to models that won’t get the update, thanks to updates to some of Google’s core apps, like Google Play Services.

Recently, it has been discovered that one of the most interesting and useful changes of the next version of Android will end up landing on models with earlier versions of the system. It’s about a new image and media picker integrated into the system, as it is expected to reach even mobile phones with versions prior to Android 10 inside. Android 13 is expected to begin reaching the first mobile phones in September.

The new image picker will be available on devices running versions prior to Android 10

As we already saw when reviewing the news of Android 13, one of the changes introduced by this new version consists of a new image selection menu that appears, for example, when an application asks us to attach a photo to a message or change a user profile image. In addition to having a renewed and more intuitive design, this image selection menu gives the user greater control over the files and allows you to choose exactly which images and videos the application has access to, instead of granting access to all the media content present on the device.

Also, the menu of the possibility of choosing specific images or videos that the application can access. Google would have concluded that such an important privacy measure, should not be exclusive to users with modern devices. For that reason, I would have decided to extend its availability to terminals with Android 10 and earlier versions thanks to an update to Google Play Services.

This is explained in the technical blog of esper.io where they indicate that, as of today, devices running Android 11 and 12 technically already have access to this feature and it is the job of developers to implement it in their apps. They also say that Google would have integrated this same function in Google Play Services aimed at Android API version 28 corresponding to Android 9. Therefore, there are more than clear indications that indicate that the new file selection menu will be available on older versions of the system.