Google will most likely not release a successor to Android 12L

At this year's Google I/O, the tech giant announced Android 13, the latest version of its mobile operating system and the successor to Android 12. And most likely, Android 13 will be globally available in August or early September. However, now there is an interesting question: is Google also planning to release a successor to Android 12L, the version of Android designed specifically for tablets? Well, the short answer is probably no.

In a new tweet, Esper's Senior Technical Editor, Mishaal Rahman, shared that there likely won't be an Android 13L, a conclusion based on data found in AOSP (the open source build of Android). Rahman said that Google has already hinted at Android 14 being on API level 34, while Android 13's API level is 33.

Now, if you are not an Android developer, you may be unfamiliar with this stuff. The API level is a unique identifier, and every Android version has one — it basically tells apps which set of APIs to use, so they work properly on your device.

Google sets these levels in sequential order. Meaning, Android 11 is API level 30, Android 12 is level 31, and Android 12L got assigned level 32. So, with Google giving API 33 to Android 13 and API 34 directly to Android 14, this means that, most likely, there won't be an Android 13L.

However, as Android Police pointed out, Google could be skipping Android 13L because there is simply no need for a version of Android designed specifically for big mobile devices anymore. Android 13 will have the same features as Android 12L, which means that it will offer an adaptive experience for both tablets and phones. And when you have one thing that checks all the boxes, you don't need another that will check only some of them.

In other words, Android 12L was probably just an experiment. Google took what it needed from it and improved its main OS so that it could offer a good user experience on various devices.