Android 12, analysis with all the changes, news and opinions

Here’s everything you need to know about Android 12 after months of testing the new version: what’s new, what’s changed and details on updates

Android 12 is here. The 31st OS update – if we count API levels to date – was released by Google plus after a preview program launched in March 2021, to later make way for the beta program at Google plus I/Or to celebrate in May.

In a very atypical year, when the phone industry is still recovering and most companies are betting on familiar formulas and more than tried and tested formulas, Google plus has decided to bring the launch to the table one of the most revolutionary operating system updates to datecompletely change the Android interfaz as we know it and strengthen it more than ever Rely on privacy.

Yes Android 11 Seen by many as a minor update, Android 12 arrives to introduce many new features, big and small, some of which are the result of several years of uninterrupted development. They are all in it in-depth analysis of Android 12.

You Matter: an interfaz created by millions of people

2015, Matías Duarte and the rest of the Google plus design team showed it to the world for the first time the visual language of material design. Inspired by the physical world and its textures, reflections and shadows, this language has been a reference guide for the design of Android and the applications and services it contains for years.

Later, at Google plus I/O in 2018, Content Design emerged to showcase content themes, a equipo of design best practices and recommendations that encouraged developers to do so express your creativity by using material design elements in your aplicaciones and services, without having to adhere to strict aesthetic guidelines.

Now, Everything changes with Android 12.

The latest iteration of the system this time opens the doors to the third major iteration of material design it puts the focus on the usuarioas its name suggests: You are important.

Content You don’t orinan that the elements of these design lines will change, but the way in which they are implemented. And Google plus just adds the tools, but yes the usuario himself is responsible for the execution of the design.

Sebastian Bauer, creative directivo of Android; and Matías Duarte, the main person in charge of content design, has been working for several years to ensure that Content Tú represents a major aesthetic advancement in the operating system and in the rest of Google plus’s services, overcoming the various challenges that result from such great power for the users yield . the aesthetics of the platform.

And as You Content gradually spreads between Google plus services and platforms, its journey begins with Android 12 and consists of different aspects different, which together represent the biggest change to the operating system’s usuario interfaz since the introduction of Material Design in 2015.

At the beginning, some of the You Content elements how dynamic topics will be exclusively for Google plus Pixel devices. However, Android device makers have the ability to access the features and customize them to their respective custom layers.

All aplicaciones that already include support for Material You dynamic themes in Android 12

“monette”

The first hints of a native theme engine for Android date back to 2017. Back then, of course Android didn’t even have something as basic as a dark theme.

For all these years, Google plus has been working “in secret” on this topic system, known internally as “Monet”, which is finally seeing the light of day.

“Monet” takes over custom operating systemby taking the elements of Material Design as a basis and leaving them to the usuario control of aesthetics your mobile operating system. And that without the slightest effort on the part of the usuario, and even though he has no iniciativa about interfaz design: it just takes Change your wallpaper to see how the Android interfaz adapts to it.

Various themes in Android 12 generated based on wallpaper.

The technology is not new: Google plus has been working with APIs for a number of years that cánido generate color palettes based on images. What changes are pending Apply the colors and tones extracted from the wallpaper in a consistent way.

To achieve this, Android 12 Extract key tone from background image. From this tone, the system generates a color palette Make changes to saturation and brightness. At the same time, a complementary color that harmonizes with the color palette generated from the base tone. If the default palette is not conclusive, the system tries to generate alternative palettes and offers the possibility to choose between a number of palettes estándar colors.

Once the color equipo is ready, all that remains is for Android apply each tone to the different elements of the usuario interfaz. From the clock on the lock screen, to the continuous notification media playback, to the Settings aplicación background and cards, or some of the icons on the home screen – currently only Google plus aplicaciones and not all -. Basically everything is capable of changing its appearance thanks to the principles of Content You.

All wallpaper used it creates a completely different subjectand sometimes surprises “Monet” with the strangest combinations.

Of course the application developer The choice is also in their hands Match your aplicaciones to the system theme. For him, Android offers three accent colors and two neutral colors each with different tones to choose from that cánido be used in the applications and that will change automatically when the usuario changes their wallpaper to a new one.

The results are stunning, hypnotic and, why not, a little addictive. Enjoy combining content with an automatic wallpaper aplicación museum the opportunity comes in Enjoy potentially endless styles on the same operating system.

Google plus has stopped using the tagline Be together, not the same on Android some time ago. But the fact of the matter is, thanks to Material You, that slogan makes more sense now than ever.

animation

With the arrival of Android 12 and its new usuario interfaz, there is a collection of new animation in the operating system.

Google plus explains that the new visual effects designed so that clearer representation What It happens when the usuario performs an action.

To the come to the end of the list Do scrollFor example we see a rebound effect much more natural than the previous “overscroll” effect Android used at design time Hi.

Fun Fact: Despite what has been rumored for the past few months, the “bounce” effect that Google plus emplees in Android 12 when it hits the bottom of the list isn’t the same elastic scroll effect patented by Apple, this patent expired in January 2021.

Other animations have also changed, like for example the one shown when unlock phone Use the fingerprint reader, face recognition system – in the Pixel 4 – or phone charging – wired or wireless -.

Effects as fácil as Touch an item on the screen They also espectáculo new, more natural and attractive animations than in previous versions of the system.

Overall, the series makes a new animation Android “feels” smoother, more fluid, and more organic, eliminating the friction that was present in previous editions of the platform. The changes are even more noticeable on devices with high refresh rates, but even relatively low-end models will benefit from the changes, as the new animation engine consumes less system resources.

And the “motor” isn’t just a new movement that introduces aesthetic improvements. According to Google plus, all improvements in this sense are made according to a 22% faster load time on the processoralthough the utilization of the “big” processor cores has been reduced by up to 15%.

It’s likely that many of these animations will remain exclusive to Pixel devices, as the rest of the manufacturers will apply their own visual effects in their respective custom layers.

Quick settings and notification panel

There perro’t be a version of Android that doesn’t introduce major changes in appearance Quick settings panel and notifications from the system. And Android 12 comes with one of the big redesign we have seen this component of the system for a long time.

He is Drop down animation for this menu from the top, so now when you swipe from the top, We see the quick controls first on a black background – the color does not change regardless of whether the light or dark theme is used – and the content on the screen gradually changes in the notification panel. Swiping up plays the animation backwards.

After viewing the panel, we see a new control layout, all in the shape of a rounded rectangle with each site’s name next to its icon. When one of the controls is activated, it takes on one of the colors of the theme generated by Your Content.

As an interesting novelty, we will see that two new controls appear, one for Google plus Pay and another to control the devices linked to Google plus Home. This is a change from Android 11, a version that introduced the same controls in a new panel accessed by a long press of the phone’s power button. However, the operation is the same in both cases: only the access to these sections changes.

There are other changes. One of the most prominent and the quick actions in advertisements that appeared on the in previous versions Notification card with partial swipeand allowed, y también.g. defer announcement.

In Android 12, the option is to ads dormant appear directly on the notification card itself, provided the option is enabled vía “Settings” > “Notifications”.

In this section, the *continuous monitoring of advertising content It is also modified. In addition to his appearance, which adapts to the theme you have chosen, you change his behavior by giving him the opportunity Pin player at the bottom of quick settings even when nothing is playing, or add the option to espectáculo multimedia content suggestions based on recent activity.

Secondly, Requests are now instantly accessible from the notification panel. Tapping on the notification card will open the aplicación immediately, provided the developers have made the necessary changes, including perform the appropriate action At the moment, the usuario performs the action instead of using “springboard” – a technique that, by the way, is blocked in Android 12.

green screen

Google plus still doesn’t find the ability to customize the lock screen vía widgets, which wasn’t possible a few years ago. Despite this, Android 12 introduces big changes to the “green screen” both functionally and aesthetically.

The first interesting change is functional and offers an opportunity to save some time when an action is as frequent as it is performed pay by mobile phone.

If a payment method is configured in Google plus Pay, it will be displayed Icon in the lower right corner of the screen representing a map. Tapping the icon will open the payment service ready to trade with the card equipo as default.

Also invited a second buttonlocated in the lower left corner, intended for Open the control of connected devices vía Google plus Home.

The next change is cosmetic. And the clock on the lock screen has become much more prominent, occupying a larger area of ​​the screen as long as there are no unread notifications. Otherwise, the clock dynamically resizes to make room for aplicación icons with pending notifications. Likewise the clock source Change its thickness dynamicallyMake the text thinner when the device stays in “Ambient Mode”.

For the rest, there are small changes in the UI of other elements of the green screen such as Keyboard for PIN entry or the visual effect seen when you slide your finger over the dots of the pattern.

gimmicks

Apple had to come with iOS 14 to give Google plus the boost it needed when it arrived Get back to work on Android widgets. Although the company ensures that this is not a “return”, but rather a series of improvements made to a beloved feature and used by millions of users around the world.

With Android 12, Google plus There is a redesign some of its own widgets as well as its selection menu. It’s easier now find exactly the widget you’re looking for.

Also, developers have access to new ones functions that you perro implement in your widgets, such as checkboxes, radio buttons, switches and more.

As for its design, rounded corners to accommodate dispositivosand the system automatically adjusts the separation to each loader and screen, regardless of the resolution.

Of course, widgets are also affected by the dynamic color APIs, allowing them to automatically adapt to the OS’s appearance based on the colors generated by your content.

At the end, Google plus widgets integrate better with the Assistantand therefore espectáculo the most relevant information in front of the usuario.

arrangements

Anyone who thinks that the custom layers didn’t add anything to “Android Google plus” didn’t see that Android 12’s new settings menu.

Its interfaz isn’t very different from what we cánido find in series UI only or OxygenOSwith the Controls and menu cards in the bottom three quarters of the screenand the upper part intended exclusively for Display of static elements and information with which the usuario cannot interact, making it easier use with one hand.

They were too rearrange some settingsstarting with the Unify network configuration in the same panel.

This panel allows, called “Internet”. Turn mobile data on or off and select the Wi-Fi network you want to connect to from the same place without accessing the system settings.

privacy

Google plus has made privacy one of the Strengths of Android with every new version of the operating system and is therefore more important than ever in the last three years.

With Android 12, the platform introduces even more improvements in this regard, some inspired by the privacy systems introduced in iOS, with the aim of giving something to the usuario Learn more about how aplicaciones access your data and for what purpose they use them.

privacy panel

The privacy panel contains many of the new privacy features in Android 12.

This panel is located in the system settings, as a new section within the privacy section. It’s easy to imagine from there the way aplicaciones have access to specific permissionsand how often they use those privileges to access usuario data.

Within the data protection area it is possible to a Cake chart at the top showing the usage of the permissions Camera, Microphone and Locationalthough the lower part espectáculos direct access to the timeline of each of these permissions.

The new Privacy Panel also offers the possibility Revoke application permissions directly without looking at each of the aplicaciones in the corresponding menu.

Privacy Indicators

There is no doubt that Android 12’s privacy indicators are inspired by the feature of the same name that Apple introduced in iOS 14. But I’m not the one judging Google plus’s decision, as it is a a tool that perro be very helpful protect sensitive usuario data.

Its operation is fácil: every time you an application is accessing the camerato the microphone You receive device location with appropriate permission, s A globe will appear in the upper right corner of the screen to warn the usuario.

This function is completed by a new fast fit integrated into the panel, which makes it possible Disable all phone sensorsincluding cameras and microphones, with one touch.

Improved permissions management

The way to Dealing with permissions Aplicación granting has also improved with Android 12, thanks to a series of changes aimed at making permissions management easier.

One of the most important innovations is the possibility Roughly let aplicaciones access a location: When an aplicación asks for permission to access the device’s location, you cánido choose whether or not to share it Exact positionor share one close location.

The near location perro be useful for applications that do not require an exact location on the map, y también.g weather aplicación. In this way, the usuario has the peace of mind that only the applications he trusts perro know where he is.

Monitor clipboard access

When an application accesses content stored on the clipboard In Android 12, the system espectáculos a type of advertising toast to warn the usuario.

This function is also derived from a very afín function in iOS and allows us to find out if an application is trying to copy sensitive content that we could save to the clipboard, such as B. passwords or bank information.

Android 12 warns when an application accesses the content stored on the clipboard.

Private Calculator

Also as part of Privacy Enhancements from Android 12, Private Calculator deserves its own analysis.

There is one under that name a equipo of protections built right into the systemwhich mainly serves to protect data shared by users, which perro be used to bring operating system functions to life based on hacking techniques. machine learning or artificial intelligence.

Some of these features are Instant subtitles, available from Android 11; the smart answers, appearing in messaging aplicación ads; or the way “Herring” of the Google plus Pixel, capable of the the name of the song who calls for us.

Those are all features that fall under the umbrella of the private computerized heart isolated from the outsideas its data processing operations are performed locally on the device and no information is shared with the servers or with Google plus or any of its partners.

Private Computing They are the central protective measures defined in the AOSP codeTherefore, anyone cánido consult and review their code and verify that these measures are effective.

new emoji

With each new version of Android, you perro not miss the correspondence A collection of new emojis. Not just those of Android 12 slightly revised, which has a slightly simpler aesthetic than previous versions; Some new emojis will also be introduced. You perro see them in the picture below:

All new emojis included in Android 12.

Play while downloading

You have to wait a few minutes and download the game before you cánido start playing is a thing of the past thanks to Android 12.

And that means use them incremental archivo system In Android, Google plus has implemented the “Play as you Download” feature, a new feature that gives users a choice Start playing the games before they are fully downloaded.

Play while you work with it a special Linux virtual archivo system It allows running a program – in this case a game – and downloading its binaries and resources on demand, as requested by that program.

Happy that This system will be enabled by default for all new games released on Google plus Play from August, as it only works with games published in the Android format of the bundle aplicación – a format that developers will have to use for their new aplicaciones and games starting this month -. it will not be necessary customize games, which would eliminate the additional effort of developers.

Google plus takes care of that This feature perro ocasione a 400MB game to take about 10 seconds to open for the first time and get ready to start playing. Previously, this process took a few minutes.

Winter aplicaciones to save resources

Android 12 introduces the hibernation aplicación as a measure Save system resources B. by putting applications that have not been used for a long time into “standby” mode.

In this way It identifies the aplicaciones that the usuario hasn’t opened for a few monthsand resets all its permissions, as well as performing other operations such as Clear cache aplicaciónBlocking the execution of jobs or alerts in the background and the arrival of push notifications.

All of these restrictions will be removed in case the usuario interacts with the application. Because the data is still on the device, no information is lost after an aplicación is brought back from the “foreign” state.

Advanced recordings

It took time, but the choice of it extended screenshot It eventually came native to Android.

Google plus has been working on this feature for years, and it was in Android 12 when the feature was included a new option that appears when you take a screenshot.

Unlike other systems, Google plus has implemented its advanced screen system in such a way that when you a sleepcánido Choose how much content you want to store in the image three slides. This way you don’t have to wait for the system to work scroll automatically on the list or page, as is the case with other devices such as OnePlus.

device performance classes

It’s not easy to develop applications that work equally well on the thousands of types of Android devices that exist around the world, and Google plus knows it.

Therefore, starting with Android 12, the device performance classes, to know in a more intuitive way the performance of a deviceby defining a equipo of capabilities that allow devices to be classified into different groups.

Depending on the device capabilities it will be able to support functions that require more or less resourceswith the aim of offering a good usuario experience regardless of its technical sheet.

These classes are defined in the Android 12 Compatibility Definition Document (CDD), and developers have the ability to check which class a device belongs to at runtime of their application.

Each new version of Android will introduce a different class of performance. The performance class for Android 12 has the following requirements:

• At least 6GB of RAM
• Screen resolution of at least 400 dpi and 1080p
• At least 150 MB/s sequential write speed, 250 MB/s sequential read speed, 10 MB/s random write speed and 40 MB/s random read speed.

Intelligent screen rotation

As the third beta version of Android 12 improved autorotation system Operating system screen, making it “smarter” and faster.

Enables an option contained in the display settings Activate face recognition when the screen rotates. The device emplees the front camera for this purpose Improving the accuracy of the coche gyro. In this way, the device perro determine whether the usuario really wants to rotate the screen content or not – for example, if we are with the device horizontally below, but our face is vertically in front of the mobile camera -.

Because this function runs as part of the Private Computing Core, the Images captured by the front camera are processed directly on the deviceand are never shared with Google plus servers.

this function only coincidente with models from 2019, so Pixel 3 owners cánido’t use it. However, anyone who owns a phone with Android 12 will benefit from the rest of the improvements made to the autorotation system, such as optimizing animations or reducing the response time through rotation models. machine learning which reduces latency by up to 25%.

Android 12 detects your head position to rotate the screen content or not.

one-hand method

However, it took a while one-hand method came natively on android. Operation is fácil: slide the bottom navigation bar down and the screen content becomes smaller for easy one-hand operation.

new easter egg

As with all new versions of Android, there was no escaping it new easter egg. In Android 12, Material You is the main character in Google plus’s hidden Easter egg.

It consists of the classic clock android 12 already that Google plus used most of the promotional material for the new version. By moving his hands and positioning them so that the clock strikes 12, the An Android 12 icon will appear on the screen, surrounded by colored bubbles. Colors natural, obtained from the wallpaper, thanks to the system’s ability to create a palette of tones from the wallpaper background.

More changes and news

Besides the main story Android 12 introduces many other changesSome are functional but not as important as those previously mentioned, while others are aimed at application developers.

We list these below Android 12 changes which, although they may not go unnoticed, are part of the series of novelties introduced with the latest version of the operating system:

• Animated and preset home screen: With Android 12, Introduction Splashscreen API, giving developers more control over application launch animations. This animation will now be enabled by default for all applications, and new customization options will also be added, y también.g. B. the ability to add movement to this animation.
• Insert rich content: another feature for developers that makes it easier to get rich content – images, text, vídeos, etcétera. – from any source – clipboard, drag-and-drop, keyboard, etcétera. – vía applications.
• Media transcoding supported: Android 12 includes a new feature that allows vídeo capture aplicaciones to use a more modern and memory-efficient encoding for vídeos recorded on the device without breaking compatibility with other aplicaciones. This allows the system to automatically convert vídeos recorded in formats like HEVC (H.265) to AVC (H.264) when the vídeos are opened by an aplicación that doesn’t support HEVC.
• RenderEffect API– A new API that allows developers to apply various filters to their aplicación’s interfaz elements, y también.g. B. Blurs or color filters.
• Audio focus improvements– With Android 12 improvements, transitioning from one aplicación to another becomes smoother by “hiding” the sound when an aplicación asks to emphasize its sound while another aplicación is focusing and playing.
• Image mode improvements– Added gestures and new features to picture-in-picture mode in Android 12, y también.g. For example, the ability to espectáculo controls with one tap or the option to resize with a double tap. There is also an option to dock or undock the floating window to one side of the screen to see the content behind it.
• New Bluetooth permissions: Android 12 includes BLUETOOTH_SCAN, BLUETOOTH_ADVERTISE, and BLUETOOTH_CONNECT permissions. They allow aplicaciones to search for nearby devices without requiring location access permission.
• API with rounded corners: As phones continue to have larger screens with rounded corners, Google plus introduced an API a that allows developers to learn information about the screen in question so they cánido customize their aplicaciones so that the content doesn’t appear clipped at the corners.
• AVIF support: Android 12 introduces support for AVIF, a modern vídeo format that inherits properties from the AV1 image format to deliver the same image quality in smaller archivos.
• ART is updated vía Google plus Play: As part of Google plus’s effort to make Android an increasingly modular operating system – as part of the Mainline initiative – this release introduces the ability to use the module that corresponds to the execution environment of Android aplicaciones – ART or Android Runtime – vía Google plus Play to update more agile and faster and independent of the device manufacturer. .
• quick touch– Added an option in gesture settings to double tap on the back of a pixel device to perform a predefined action, y también.g. For example, take a screenshot, call up Google plus Assistant or open the camera.
• A new way to invoke Google plus Assistant: In addition to the new quick touch gesture, Android 12 lets you enable an option that lets you activate Google plus Assistant with a long press of the power button. For this reason, the backlinks to Google plus Pay and the Home automation controls now in quick settings panel.
• Unlock car from phone: If you have a coincidente vehicle, you cánido use your Android 12 phone to unlock and, in some cases, even start the car.
• More opportunities for third-party aplicación stores: Due to pressure from regulators and companies like Epic Games, Google plus has decided to give certain options to third-party companies that distribute aplicaciones on Android. Starting with Android 12, these aplicaciones don’t need to ask the usuario for permission to install new versions of aplicaciones already on the device.
• device search: Android 12 introduces a new local search API on the device, open to aplicación developers. Google plus states that the AppSearch API is a high-performance “on-device” search engine that enables aplicaciones to index and search structured data using text. Among other things, it supports multiple languages ​​and the ability to create rankings based on relevance.

Which mobile phones are coincidente with Android 12?

There’s a whole lot of it 10 teléfonos inteligentes which is coincidente with Android 12. As expected, the models of the family Google plus Pixel You are the first to update to the latest version of Android. They are as follows:

• pixels 3
• Pixel 3 XL
• Pixel 3a
• Pixel 3a XL
• pixels 4
• Pixel 4 XL
• Pixel 4a
• Pixel 4a 5G
• pixels 5
• Pixel 5a

However, Google plus has decided not to release the update to Android 12 yet to your devices yet. We’ll have to wait “a couple of weeks” for the update to reach the Pixel series devices and later those of the other brands.

However, at the time of the launch of the new version, there are already more than 200 phones with the confirmed update to Android 12, which will receive the new version over the months.

Android 12 is without a doubt a huge B. Google plus to establish Android as a mobile reference platform. With the flexibility that the operating system has offered since its inception, now a visual consistency previously only seen on platforms like iOSwith the added value of ability create custom designs and unique to each usuario.

To all this must be added “Comfort”, security and privacy features and improvements that brings the twelfth version of the system and all the small changes that, although not noticeable at first glance, make Android 12 an even more important update.

Release the new version as the beginning of the Android 12 path –except for those who have remained in the beta program for the past few months–. So we get more and more secrets about this operating system,