• The scrubber on the progress bar is no longer a circle, but a tall pill that stands up straight.
• The “Show media on lock screen” setting can be found in the Settings app or by long-pressing a running media player.
• Android 13 QPR1 Beta 2 should become stable in December.

Today, Pixel phones are getting Android 13 QPR1 Beta 2, which continues to make changes to the user interface, especially to the media player.

The scrubber on the progress bar is no longer a circle, so it no longer looks like a sperm. It is now a tall, thin pill that stands up straight.

The visual touch target is a little too small, but it works well and solves the problems that people had with the design.

It’s interesting that Google agreed to make a change after the stable launch in August but not when it was still in beta.

The “Show media on lock screen” setting can be found in the Settings app > Sound & vibration > Media or by long-pressing a running media player. By default, it is turned on, but if you turn it off, you can hide the card and see more notifications when audio is streaming.

Even when this setting is turned off and a song is playing, the tall clock is still only one line. As always, to access player controls, you can swipe down.

In a related change, the “Sound & vibration” bottom sheet no longer opens when the volume is changed with the physical rocker and the “Overflow” menu is tapped.

Instead, it is now in the middle, which makes it feel less like a part of the whole system to me.

With all of these changes to the media player, Android 13 QPR1 should become stable in December. However, things could change after one more preview next month.

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