Android 12 is here – now officially available in AOSP
Google has officially released the Android 12 source code to the Android Open Source Project. Android 12 is here and will soon be available for devices outside of AOSP, starting with the Pixel smartphones.
Android 12 is official. Google has released the final source code to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Four and a half months and over 50,000 issue reports later, Google is thanking its community for all its feedback. With that, the beta phase is over.
Android 12 will first come to the Google Pixel within the next few weeks. Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Tecno, Vivo and Xiaomi are to receive the update later this year.
New user interface: individual, dynamic and yet uniform
Android 12 introduces a lot of new features. Among them, a user interface with a fresh design language called Material You. It’s supposed to make the operating system as well as the apps and widgets more beautiful and personalised. The new design doesn’t rely on a fixed colour scheme. Instead, it adjusts its colour palette to match your current background image, which is supposed to make for a smooth user experience.
The new lock screen and notification interface are also supposed to be more modern and more useful. The lock screen now has a huge, two-line clock. If you get a notification, the clock shrinks and moves up to make room in the middle.
In Quick Settings, Material You gives you wider sliders and larger buttons. The colours also adjust based on the background image, and they light up when tapped.
The new strech overscroll feature makes scrolling smoother. It adds a new stretch effect that serves as a scroll-stop indicator.
Improved performance
The new operating system is supposed to be faster and more efficient. Core system services on Android 12 are supposed to use 22 per cent less CPU time and 15 per cent fewer big cores. In addition, apps should launch more quickly, in part thanks to optimised database queries.
The experience is supposed to be much snappier overall; Android 12 features optimised foreground services, more responsive notifications, accelerated machine learning, and more.
Improved privacy settings
Privacy notifications in Android 12 are displayed in the new Privacy Dashboard. This should give users a better overview of when which app accessed location data, the microphone or the camera in the past 48 hours. It also allows users to make quick adjustments to permissions.
Android 12 gives users more freedom and information. If the camera or microphone is active, you’ll see it in the status bar. And should an app request your exact location, only the approximate location can now be provided, i.e. instead of being accurate to within a few metres, the location transmitted is accurate to within a few kilometres. And the permissions for Bluetooth pairing have also changed – location permissions are no longer required.
All this along with new camera effects and sensor functions, improved haptic feedback and more may soon be available on your smartphone. In any case, stay tuned for our Android 12 review. We’ll certainly put it through its paces, check out the new colours and share our experience with you.
I find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.