Google is dropping Android 13 Beta 3 today, and while it might not be filled with new features the way early developer previews tend to be, there is a silver lining here: platform stability. This latest beta represents the first step towards an official release later this summer, as the company's next version of Android starts to feel a whole lot more polished.

As expected, Google primarily focuses on developers with Beta 3, as platform stability marks a change in focus from rapidly-evolving new features to stability and app compatibility. It's also the perfect time for devs to start their final testing, as APIs, behaviors, and non-SDK API lists are now considered final. For consumers, it also means Android 13 has solidified into what it'll be when a stable build launches in a couple of months — you should expect any significant additional feature announcements coming down the pike.

Google's blog post for Beta 3 is filled with essential documentation for developers to ensure their app is compatible with all of the changes and improvements in Android 13. It also contains some new documentation for large screen devices, covering tweaks to multi-window mode, taskbar interaction, and media casting. The only official change listed in today's release refers to improvements with copy and paste, though we'll likely find a handful of changes and tweaks as we dig deeper. Generally, though, Android 13 is what it is: a bunch of improvements to last year's redesign with a focus on privacy and security.

Here's Google's official list of bug fixes for Beta 3:

• Fixed an issue where unlocking the phone with a fingerprint while Always On Display was active would sometimes cause the entire screen to be tinted green temporarily.
• Fixed an issue on Pixel devices where swiping on the all apps search result page would sometimes cause the Pixel Launcher to crash.

So far, Google has managed to hold steady on the Android 13 timeline shared way back at the start of this year. We'll hit one more beta sometime in July — presumably the final preview release, barring any unforeseen technical errors — before it hits all phones later this year. Google hasn't added a specific month for its launch time frame, but August or September seem like obvious candidates.

If you're already rocking the Android 13 beta on your Pixel, you should get an OTA update in the coming hours. Those on beta partner devices from the likes of Asus, OnePlus, and Lenovo will have to wait for their respective manufacturers to roll out a new build — Google says this particular release is coming to "select devices" in the Android Beta Program. And of course, the truly daring can install the latest GSI on any Treble-compliant device. For the impatient Pixel owners among us who can't stand to wait through Google's app optimization process, you can also sideload the OTA files once they're available (whenever they happen to go live, that is).

UPDATE: 2022/06/08 16:13 EST BY WILL SATTELBERG

Update now available

Google announced Android 13 Beta 3 was hitting Pixel devices earlier this afternoon, but if you've been hammering the "Check for update" button to no avail, you're in luck. After three hours, the OTA and system image files are finally up for grabs on Google's website. With any luck, this means it'll roll out to users through the system update page in settings very soon. It's unclear what caused the delay — Google's own developer pages even took down the Beta 2 files, displaying a simple "Available soon" message in their place. Regardless, our long national nightmare is over, and we can all return to digging through the newest beta drop for Android 13.