Google last month released the first developer preview of Android 13, giving us a glimpse of the new features coming to the next major Android release. Along with major changes like new privacy features, themed icons, improved language controls, and more, Android 13 also includes a few small improvements, like the ability to activate the flashlight using Quick Tap gestures on Pixel devices. Additionally, recent reports suggest that Android 13 will also include another feature related to your phone's flashlight.
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According to Esper’s Mishaal Rahman, Android 13 introduces two new APIs in the CameraManager class — getTorchStrengthLevel and turnOnTorchWithStrengthLevel. The former returns the current torch brightness level, while the latter sets the brightness level from a minimum of 1 to a maximum determined by the hardware. Essentially, these new APIs will allow users to adjust the brightness of their phone’s torch, which could be useful in a variety of scenarios.
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For those who don't know, Android currently only offers a toggle to turn the flashlight on or off. While custom Android skins from some OEMs, like Samsung, include a brightness control slider for the flashlight, such a feature is not available on devices from other OEMs. Google plans to make the change with Android 13, offering a native brightness control feature for the flashlight. However, despite the change, some devices running Android 13 may not have this feature.
As Mishaal notes, “The reason why support for this feature will be limited is that it will require an update to the camera hardware abstraction layer (HAL).”.
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To offer the feature, OEMs will need to implement version 3.8 of the camera device HAL in Android 13. And whether OEMs implement version 3.8 or not will depend on the requirements set out in the vendor software requirements (VSR) for Android 13, which Google has not finalized.
Information source: xda-developers.com
