Game loading times might become way shorter with Android 13

Android users have been enjoying a slew of gaming-oriented OS improvements over the years. Android 12, in particular, brought some features to the table, like the option for game developers to implement different game performance modes such as high refresh rate, power efficiency, or high quality. Games like Asphalt 9 and Genshin Impact are just a couple that come to mind to have made use of this option.

What’s more, Android 12 allowed phone manufacturers to add the Game Dashboard, which is the pop-up menu you might have seen in some phones’ gaming modes. It is a quick way to toggle on and off simple settings that you might want to access while gaming including, but not limited to, taking a screenshot or video recording and turning on the do-not-disturb mode.

Well, a new report has revealed that Google is planning on adding even more gaming-oriented improvements with Android 13. One of the major ones is the setGameState method that, when implemented, will enable games to notify the phone of their current state. (via Esper)

By knowing the game's current state, the phone will be able to decide whether the game can be interrupted or not. More interestingly, however, thanks to the setGameState method, the game will also be able to communicate loading process information. The phone can then act accordingly to the information it has received and boost its CPU performance using the new GAME_LOADING mode.

Now, this is not something new. Many manufacturers already have their own way of allocating more power to the phone’s chip to increase gaming performance and loading times. However, having a built-in one in Android itself could make this easier to do and even make it more effective, given that it’s a first-party software feature.

The report states that Google intends these improvements to be available for all phones launching with Android 13 (and later) out of the box. However, the same cannot be said for other devices that will be upgrading from Android 12 and earlier.