Android 13 brings app streaming to PC with Pixel smartphones

The upcoming version of Google’s Android 13 operating system will include some exciting features, as a first preview version of the update shows. Among them is app streaming for Pixel smartphones, which displays any apps on the PC and simulates Windows 11 on the smartphone.

Android 13 with Hammer features?

Google’s upcoming mobile OS could have it all. At least that’s what the report from 9to5Google magazine, which has already been able to try out a preview version of Android 13, suggests. Among other things, it makes it possible to stream apps from a Google Pixel smartphone like the Pixel 6 Pro (our review) to a PC.

However, the whole thing does not only work with a Windows PC or notebook, but also on Mac or a Chromebook. This is made possible by new, so-called “cross-device apps” that are delivered with Android 13. The first of them makes it possible to stream Android apps on the PC.

The apps open on the PC in the last available state, while the smartphone can be used as normal. According to 9to5Google, the function is controlled via a web application for the Chrome browser, which can also be activated on Windows computers. The Android 13 feature is actually intended for Chromebooks, but it also works with Windows and Mac.

There are no restrictions on the apps that can be streamed, even though the feature is actually intended for displaying chat and messaging apps.

Windows 11 on Android smartphone

The second new app from the Android 13 preview release, on the other hand, allows you to get Windows 11 running on an Android smartphone. Thanks to the virtualization feature, various other operating systems such as Linux or Windows 11 can be made to run on the Google Pixel 6.

This is made possible by the KVM hypervisor integrated in Android 13 DP1, thanks to which virtual machines (VMs) can be installed on the smartphone. Apparently, almost a native performance is achieved, but there is no graphics accelerator.

Theoretically, even (older) games can be played with it, albeit in the ARM and not the x86 version. Developer Danny Lin (@kdrag0n) demonstrates this using the id shooter Doom as an example.

Of course, the installation of third operating systems is not the field of application for which the KVM hypervisor is intended by Google. Rather, the VMs are likely to cover additional security-related aspects, as Mishaal Rahman also notes on the Esper blog.

More features of Android 13

But Android 13 has other exciting features on board in the current Developer Preview, which Rahman summarizes in another blog post. This includes, for example, the spin-off of the Bluetooth and Ultrawideband stacks into mainland modules that can be easily updated via Google Play.

In addition, a new Photo Picker for selecting pictures has been added, while the language of each app can be changed individually. It remains to be seen whether all new Android 13 features will only be available on Google Pixel smartphones or whether they will be available for all Android devices.