Brief look at the newly released Android 12
"Brief look at the newly released Android 12"
Android 12 was released at Google IO 2021 in beta for select devices for now, including phones from Oppo, Nokia, OnePlus, Xiaomi, ZTE, Asus, TCL and iQOO as well of course as plenty of Pixels.
The final version of Android 12 will likely land in September or October based on past releases of the OS, though most likely only on a small number of handsets to begin with, such as the Google Pixel 5 and Google Pixel 4a, along with the upcoming Google Pixel 6, assuming such a phone launches.
Refreshed UI
Google has announced a new Material Design language for Android 12, called Material You, which is a rethink of the whole UI across the operating system.The current beta brings more rounded buttons, more varied colors, smoother motion and animations, and much more.The company calls it color extraction, where you can pick a wallpaper and the system will automatically apply the dominant, complementary and best looking colors from it to the rest of the UI, including the notification shade, the lock screen, and volume controls.
Privacy and Security
The Android Private Compute Core is the engine behind Android 12's privacy features, making sure that the apps and the phone are following the privacy settings enabled by you. The new privacy dashboard gives you an overall view of apps using the phone's location, camera, contacts, and much more. The notification center also has quick access to disable any features of the phone that an app is using.Android 12 will also ask you for permission from an app to use a feature of the phone. You can select to allow it while running the app, only once, or not at all. You can also opt to only provide an approximate location to some apps, such as weather apps which don't need to know exactly where you are.
With features like Live Caption, Now Playing and Smart Reply, all of the audio and language processing happens on your device, so the data isn't sent elsewhere.
Other Features
When held down, the power button will now bring up Google Assistant, a much easier method of summoning the service for a query when needed. A new built-in remote is also now standard in Android 12, so if you have a TV that runs on Android, or just a Chromecast, you can use your phone to browse through your favorite shows. Google's password manager is also being redeveloped, with a cross-platform integration across your Google apps and devices.
Photo modes will support a new format – AVIF, which promises similar compression to JPEG but at better quality. Android 12 also promises to make your device faster and more responsive. Google claims that it reduces the CPU time needed for core system services by up to 22% and reduces the use of big cores by the system server by up to 15%, all of which should also mean improved battery life.
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