In Android 12, Google introduced several new features for mobile gamers and developers to take the Android gaming experience to the next level. Some smartphones, such as the Pixel 6 series, have a new Game Dashboard utility that provides access to useful tools during gameplay, such as a screenshot shortcut, screen saver, DND switching, and more. Meanwhile, the new game mode API allows developers to optimize their games for the best performance or increase battery life depending on the performance profile chosen by the user. Android 13 continues to strive to improve mobile games with some new additions.

According to Esper’s Mishaal Rahman, Android 13 adds a new setGameState method to the GameManager API that allows games to report their current state to the system. This allows games to communicate the state of the top game and indicate if it should be interrupted. In addition to that, Games can set the setGameState for the game’s assets/resources/build/etc. can use it to notify the platform whether it is installed or not. The platform can then send a boot time hint to a strong HAL to enable the new GAME_LOADING mode and improve CPU performance. However, OEMs should specify the CPU performance settings they want to use with GAME_LOADING mode enabled.

Theoretically, this means that you have to look at the main screen of downloading games less. Many Android OEMs are already implementing various optimizations such as allocating more CPU and GP resources to improve game downloads.

The expert reports that Google is considering adding a test to the Vendor Test Suite (VTS) to force the GAME_LOADING mode for all devices running Android 13 and higher. However, it is unclear whether this requirement is met. It is also possible that devices upgrading to Android 13 do not include the new Power HAL version and the GAME_LOADING mode. Source