Google just released Android 13 QPR2 Beta 2 for the Google Pixel series, and while there aren't a lot of user-facing features on the surface, people are already spotting some interesting changes. According to the folks over on the Google News Telegram, Google is experimenting with a feature that would see apps have an automatically generated themed icon if it doesn't have one already.
The feature comes in the form of a new developer flag called ENABLE_FORCED_MONO_ICON. The description states that flipping the toggle will "enable the ability to generate monochromatic icons, if it is not provided by the app."
The reason for this is to deal with the developers who don't have a themed icon in their apps that will work in the Google Pixel Launcher. On top of that, given that the initial wave of app developers implementing themed icons will have definitely passed, the apps that are going to have themed icon support pretty much all do at this point. This will at least allow users who like to have a cohesive home screen to get all of their apps to look somewhat consistent.
As for whether this feature will make it out of experimentation, it's unclear at the moment. Features like this are tested all the time, and many of them across many different platforms never make it to the final product. If it stays as a developer flag that can be enabled though, then at the very least users with root access should be able to force it to be enabled.
We'll be sure to let you know if we spot any more interesting features being talked about in Android 13 QPR 2 Beta 2! There are brand-new emoji to check out too, so we're sure that even more will pop up soon. It would definitely be nice to be able to have a home screen with all themed icons, even with the apps that don't support one!
Source: Google News