Introducing Android 12
Android 12 is coming this year with a new Material You design language, improved privacy features and more. DOMINIC PRESTON reports
Google updates its Android operating system every year, introducing new features and designs that keep the software in fine fettle, and the new version for 2021 is Android 12. Launching later this year, it will bring about a whole new design language and a host of new privacy features, among other improvements, to Google’s device ecosystem.
So, what will appear in Android 12 when it arrives on your phone? Here’s everything Google has revealed.
RELEASE DATE
The latest version of Android is usually first seen in developer previews in March, then publicly previewed at Google’s I/O event (see page 4), with public beta versions releasing shortly afterwards
and the final, full release of the software coming in the autumn.
The first developer preview of Android 12 went live on 18 February, granting developers their first chance to really sink their teeth into the update (with the second preview touching down on 17 March and the third on 21 April), before Google officially revealed the new OS at its annual I/O developer conference, launching its first public beta at the same time (the second public beta was then released on 9 June).
In the past few years, Android has adopted the following release pattern:
Android 9
First public beta: 8 May 2018
Full version release: 6 August 2018
Android 10
First public beta: 7 May 2019
Full version release: 3 September 2019
Android 11
First public beta: 10 June 2020
Full version release: 8 September 2020
Android 12
First public beta: 18 May 2021 Full version release: Tbc
If you want to download Android 12 Beta 2, we explain how on page 29.
COMPATIBLE PHONES
Now, this is where things can get complicated. Android still suffers from horrendous fragmentation, which means some phones get the new software straight away, others follow on weeks or months later, while a fair chunk won’t get it at all.
If you want to guarantee moving to the next version of Android, then you’ll want to buy one of Google’s own Pixel phones, such as the Pixel 5, Pixel 4a or Pixel 4a 5G, all of which get preferential treatment due to the fact that Google knows the exact make-up of each phone’s hardware configuration and software.
Any phones on the Android One platform, such as many Motorola and Nokia handsets, also get the newer versions quickly, although usually only for up to two years after they were first released (in most cases).
You should also be able to expect swift(er) updates to the new operating system from any of the brands listed in our ‘How to download Android 12 Beta 2’ feature on page 29.
NEW FEATURES
One of the main areas of excitement for any new version of Android is, of course, which new features Google introduces. Here are all the features confirmed
so far for the new OS from Google’s official announcement and the various developer previews and betas out there:
Material You
The biggest change so far concerns how Android is going to look moving forwards: Material You. That’s Google’s name for the new design language that runs through Android 12 on its Pixel phones, and will eventually roll out across other Google hardware.
The OS is far more colourful, with customizable colour palettes that run throughout the phone, from the lock screen to your actual apps.
You can set these five-colour palettes yourself, or let the phone create one for you by dynamically picking the colours out from your phone’s wallpaper. Google says that when Material You debuts on
Pixel phones this autumn, the custom palettes will work across every Google app, and that eventually, third-party apps will also be able to take advantage.
Icons and interfaces have been rounded off throughout, with circles, squircles, and straight-up squiggles appearing all over the place.
This new design will be a Pixelexclusive at first, but it’s hard to know how much of the design will ever filter through to the Android skins used by Samsung, Xiaomi and others.
Faster motion and animations
The interface is also more dynamic and responsive. Turn the screen on using the power button and the light will ripple out away from the button, while if you have no notifications then your lock screen clock will expand to fill the space.
All of this will be smoother and faster too, thanks to under-the-hood improvements that have reduced the CPU time needed for core system services by up to 22 per cent, and reduced the system server’s use of big cores by up to 15 per cent.
New privacy features
Beyond the design, the biggest set of changes to Android 12 are all about privacy and security, most of which arrived in the second public beta.
First up is a new Privacy Dashboard, which is intended to be a one-stopshop for all of your data privacy; letting you know what data was accessed, when, and by which apps – with the option to revoke app permissions right there and then too.
New microphone and camera icons indicate when an app is using either, so you aren’t caught unawares. If you want to be even more careful, there are new Quick Settings toggles to entirely block camera and/or microphone access for all apps at once for guaranteed privacy.
There’s also a new ‘approximate location’ permission so that you can give more vague location data to apps that don’t need to know exactly where you are, like your weather app.
In a message sent to Android developers in early June, it’s also been revealed that Google intends to give users the option to opt-out of ad tracking, meaning such users’ Advertising ID (which is used for ad tracking purposes) won’t be supplied to developers who request and they’ll instead simply receive a string of zeros.
This follows on from a similar move Apple made with the release of iOS 14.5, where apps need to ask permission to track user information for the purposes of personalized ads. The obvious difference here is Google’s opt-out approach versus Apple’s opt-in, but for users made aware of the change, it will add a greater layer of privacy when it comes to ad tracking that is undoubtedly appreciated.
Google Assistant
Google has added yet another way to access the Google Assistant: a longpress on the power button. Since this is already used in all sorts of ways by different phones, expect this to simply become another of several options for this button shortcut.
Quick Settings
Back on Quick Settings, the menu has been redesigned as part of wider tweaks to the notification tray. Most excitingly, there are new Quick Settings options to access your Google Home device settings and Google Pay.
ChromeOS integration
Google is also keen to build up its wider device ecosystem, so Android 12 will have tighter integration with Chromebooks and other ChromeOS devices. A single tap on the phone will facilitate the unlocking of a nearby Chromebook, while you’ll also get all of your chat notifications there in ChromeOS, and be able to access photos from your phone on your laptop.
Android TV remote
The new operating system will also link more closely to Android TV. Android 12 phones will be able to operate as a TV remote for all Android TV devices, letting you use the phone’s microphone for voice search, or type using the phone keyboard.
Digital car key
Google is also the latest company to work on using your phone as a car key.
Using a combination of NFC and UWB (ultrawideband) tech, you’ll be able to use your phone as a secure key to lock, unlock, or start your compatible car, and you’ll even be able to share keys securely with friends or family. Since this relies on UWB, the digital car key will be limited to phones with that hardware – in this case, ‘select Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones’, likely including the Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra, so far the only Samsung phones with a UWB chip.
Scrollable screenshots
For a while it looked like this simple tool would appear in Android 11, as companies like OnePlus, Huawei and Samsung already have the feature in their versions of the operating system.
But it didn’t quite make the cut in time, so we’re glad it’s arriving on Android 12, granting you the ability to capture images that encompass the entire page of a site or app, not just what you can see on the display.
‘Conversations’ widget
Another addition is the ‘Conversations’ widget, which will consolidate missed calls, status updates from multiple social platforms and messages from multiple platforms (including Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp) for a single contact (or a small group of contacts).
Camera improvements
Android doesn’t natively support quad or nona-binning sensors (as on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S21 series), so native support for such hardware across apps is now being implemented within Android 12, which should result in better quality imagery between different apps that utilize the camera.
Cameras will also benefit from custom manufacturer shooting effects (like HDR, bokeh, and so on) across more apps outside of a phone’s camera app too, thanks to changes in how Android handles its CameraX library and Camera2 API extensions.
Rich content insertion
The ability to copy and paste richer bodies of content (such as images, videos and audio) by way of a new API that accepts content from multiple sources: clipboard, keyboard or drag and drop, in order to move it between apps.
Haptic-coupled audio effects
Haptic feedback (precise vibrations) governed by audio files, which can be used to control vibration strength and frequency to create more immersive experiences. Examples provided by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering for Android, include a video calling app using custom ringtones to identify a caller through haptic feedback or you simulating the sensation of rough terrain in a racing game.
Immersive Mode improvements for gesture navigation
Immersive Mode is effectively fullscreen mode, where the notifications bar and on-screen navigation buttons are temporarily hidden while an app occupies the entire screen.
In Android 12, aside from when gaming, all other full-screen/immersive apps/experiences (such as video playback, reading, photo galleries, and so on) will be easier to exit out of with a simple swipe; in an effort to better accommodate Android’s prior move to gesture navigation over button navigation, by default.
More of Android updated through Google Play
A continuation of Project Mainline, Android 12 will better allow for various
components of Android to be updated via Google Play going forward, without the need for subsequent full operating system upgrades.
Optimization for tablets, foldables and TVs
Android on tablets is famously ‘meh’, filled with incompatibilities and user interface issues borne from poor app optimization. New tools should help developers build better Android 12-based experiences for Android tablets, foldables and TVs and includes a new Android 12 for TV preview to tinker with too.
Smoother PIP (picture in picture)
Currently, apps that support PIP usually take a second to pop up on your home screen (or supported screens outside the app powering the PIP experience), particularly if you’re using gesture navigation (rather than on-screen or physical buttons) to move around your device. As part of the Developer Preview 2, Google’s made the transition far slicker, so the Twitch stream you’re watching should now seamlessly scale down into the corner of your screen as you swipe up to exit out of the app, back out of your home screen.
Improved wearable pairing and connectivity
Android 12 should help improve the responsiveness of connected devices, such as wearables like smartwatches and fitness trackers, especially those on its revamped Wear OS.
Your device will have a better grasp on when your watch is in-range or out-of‑range/switched off so that it knows it can pass data to and from said connected device. The pairing process and the permissions associated with
it are also set to be simplified into a single grant too.
App launch splash screens
When you open an app, it’ll now feature a splash screen, better concealing the loading process and making for a more polished experience every time you tap on an icon. While there’s a preset method for how splash screens will be displays, developers have the ability to customize them, from colour, whether they follow a device’s dark mode settings and they can even include an animation.
New call notification design
Dialler or chat apps will now benefit from improved call notifications, with custom UI features and higher visibility over standard notifications, sitting at the top of the notifications pile when they occur.
Faster web link access
Users will be able to open web links from within apps way faster, with the links opening in their device’s default browser, rather than having to state a preference each time.
Compatible media transcoding
Despite an increasing number of devices encoding video in HEVC (which offers superior compression and reduced loss in quality compared to older codecs), compatibility is still an issue. In spite of this, Android 12 will automatically transcode HEVC files into the more compatible AVC format for apps where HEVC isn’t yet supported.
AVIF image support
As for images, in a similar vein to above, AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is being adopted by Android as a new, more efficient image container that offers higher quality, more efficient compression compared to standards like JPEG.
Better compatibility with third-party stores
There are a range of app stores available besides the Google Play Store. For example, there’s Samsung’s Galaxy Store and Huawei’s App Gallery, plus other variants that often come pre-installed on some handsets.
For Android 12, Google has stated that it will open up how these are available to users, with a spokesperson telling 9to5Google, “We will be making changes in Android 12 (next year’s Android release) to make it even easier for people to use other app stores on their devices while being careful not to compromise the safety measures Android has in place. We are designing all this now and look forward to sharing more in the future.”
Separately, Google explained that app stores wishing to offer features like automated app updates which don’t require user permission will have to follow strict guidelines in order to do so. Such functionality will also be opt-in (in other words, not automatically granted) and an ‘update packages without user action’ permission will need to be obtained.
One-handed mode
Much like scrollable screenshots, onehanded mode is another feature that’s already widely available on Android handsets, but as of yet doesn’t have an official Google version.
XDA Developers reported that a one-handed mode is on the way to Android 12, which will make the feature available to every handset manufacturer – though that doesn’t necessarily mean that every OEM will include it on their phones.
Having tested an implementation in Android 12 beta 1, the OS’s native onehanded mode is arguably more like iOS’s Reachability feature, pulling whatever is on-screen down by about 45 per cent so that elements at the top of the display are pulled within reach. This is different to the many one-handed modes from other Android phone makers, which usually scale the entire interface down towards one of the bottom corners of the screen temporarily.
Back double-tap gesture
9to5Google claimed to have seen information suggesting the return of the double-tap gesture, available within beta releases of Android 11, last year. When enabled, users would be able to doubletap with a finger on the back of their device to activate the Google Assistant, take a screenshot, play or pause media, open the notifications shade or open the recent apps view.
The feature – code-named ‘Columbus’ (after the Zombieland character) – was expected to feature in the public build of Android 11 but was pulled prior to release, so word of its resurgence in the Android 12 beta proved promising.
Sure enough, in Android 12 beta 1, while the feature isn’t yet active, an entry for double-tap does appear in the settings menu and also includes the option to open any app of the user’s choosing (as well as all the potential functionality mentioned already).
In its Android 11 beta form, it’s thought that Columbus was too sensitive and that the Android 12 iteration will require far firmer and more deliberate taps to function. Whether the gesture is guaranteed to see the light of day and whether it’s intended to be a Google Pixel-exclusive feature all remains to be seen, though.
UNCONFIRMED FEATURES
Even with the public beta now out, some Android 12 features remain up in the air, but have been tipped in rumours and leaks. Here are a few we might still see turn up in the new OS:
A single, native media-player
Android is a system with many options, that’s what we like about it, but it also means there can be a confusing amount of approaches and apps when it comes to things like media playback. On the Reddit AMA the Google engineers hinted at a single, unified player that could appear soon.
“We recognize the confusion resulting from having multiple player options with different APIs and capabilities. We have begun efforts to converge them into a single solution based on ExoPlayer. The converged player will be full-featured and easy to use – and we’ll share more info with the developer community as this progresses.”
Wi-Fi sharing
Keen-eyed devs and fans often find potential new Android features within the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which often hides code for features being developed by Google engineers – though doesn’t confirm that they’ll necessarily end up officially included in the next OS version.
That’s the case for Nearby Wi-Fi Sharing, spotted in a submission to AOSP from Google engineer Abel Tesfaye. It’s essentially a way to simplify the process of adding new devices to your Wi-Fi network through sharing the network login details. You’ve been able to do this since Android 10 by sharing a QR code, but Tesfaye’s submission
would automate this process a little more and send the password over Android’s Nearby Share feature.
Restricted Networking Mode
This is another feature dug up from AOSP. It appears to be a setting that, when enabled, restricts networking only to apps with a specific highlevel permission – which will in effect limit network access only to default system apps, and none that the user has installed. We’re hoping this will be joined by a customizable permission list that allows you to specify which apps have permission to use the network, but even if not this could be a useful new networking safe mode.
Native support for WireGuard VPN
VPNs are becoming more and more the norm in these digitally surveilled times in which we live. So, it’s good news that the new, fast encryption protocol WireGuard looks like it will have native support in the new version of Android.
App pairs
This is a new split-screen multitasking feature that will allow you to save shortcuts to specific pairs of apps so that they open together. First reported by 9to5Google, app pairs are another feature you can already find in some Android phones, but Google is now building an official implementation.
Smart auto-rotate
Here’s a welcome new feature: Google is reportedly adding some AI smarts to Android’s auto-rotate, in an overdue update to a feature that’s currently only based on your phone’s gyroscope and accelerometer. 9to5Google reports that the feature will use the phone’s selfie camera to detect which way your face is relative to the phone and rotate – or not – correspondingly. The site does however warn that it’s possible this will be a Pixel-exclusive feature, rather than opening up to all Android devices.
User access to Android’s hidden recycle bin/trash
A recycle bin of sorts has actually existed within Google’s mobile OS since Android 11; designed to temporarily hold onto app files so that an app has a window of time to request to retrieve them on behalf of the user. For the time being, this temporary holding area remains hidden from end-users.
XDA Developers has unearthed signs that an option may soon appear in the Storage subsection of Android’s Settings menu, letting users manually empty this trash can to free up device space. This runs in parallel to signs that a forthcoming update to the Files by Google app will let users both delete and restore files from within the app. It’s unclear at this stage whether a restore option will also be present in Android 12’s updated storage settings.
Automatic app UI translation
Another discovery after XDA Developers got its hands on an unreleased Android 12 build (in other words, not a developer preview), uncovered references in the framework code that allude to a new native translation service that would serve to translate in-line text within applications from one language to another. This would allow a developer’s app to reach a far wider audience without the need to pay for or source translation services for versions that aren’t in the app’s native language.
Screenshots won’t auto-upload to cloud photo storage
Phones from the likes of Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo and Realme throw screenshots into the same ‘DCIM’ directory as photos taken with your phone’s camera (rather than ‘Pictures > Screenshots’, as most other Android phones do); meaning there’s a greater chance of your photo backup service of choice pulling them up to the cloud along with your snaps.
A trusted source has apparently supplied XDA Developers with a ‘preliminary revision of the Compatibility
Definition Document (CDD) for Android 12’ wherein copy pertaining to the ‘Application Shared Storage’ section states, “If device implementation have screenshot or screen recording functionality, including by way of hardware shortcut or software button, they: MUST save the image or video file generated in a directory called ‘Screenshots’ which is automatically generated under ‘Pictures’ on onboard memory or a SD card in a reliable port. It is accessible by using DIRECTORY_SCREENSHOTS. MUST NOT save screenshots and screen recordings in DCIM, Pictures, Videos or a custom directory.”
While the reason for this more rigid stipulation on Google’s part is unclear, if this change makes it into the final CDD, affected users won’t have to worry about unpicking screenshots from the cloudstored pictures, if they didn’t want them there to begin with.
DESSERT NAME
Sadly, Google has long since abandoned the official dessert names for Android versions, but the company does still use those names internally – Android 11 was unofficially known as Red Velvet Cake, for example.
Android 12 is ‘S’, and XDA Developers claims that this stands for ‘Snow Cone’ – pretty disappointing when they had shortbread, s’more and sherbet sitting right there.