Android 12 is coming, and with it, Google’s OS is getting a facelift. The Beta is available right now! Besides some gorgeous visual upgrades, there are many new features.

Personalization is the core theme of the update—it is “designed for you”—and many of the new features are centered around providing a deeply personal experience to Android users. Some notable features are the redesigned systems spaces, a fully adaptable quick settings shade, and a user privacy dashboard.

While not all of the new features have been revealed, and there may be dozens more, these are the ten best we’ll see in Android 12.

Visual Overhaul and Material You

Android 12 will include one of the most significant design changes in its history called Material You. The colors, shapes, themes, animation, and just about everything related to the experience have been revamped.

  • Complete visual evolution.

  • Snappy animations.

  • New motion effects.

  • More personalization than ever.

  • Won’t come to all devices.

  • There’s a learning curve.

The result is a more expressive, dynamic, and personalized system. From more fluid animations to redesigned system spaces, Android has never looked or felt so good, emphasizing usability.

Color Extraction

You can personalize the wallpaper, lock screen, and minor elements in older versions, but it doesn’t change much about the rest of the interface. Android 12 introduces something called Color Extraction, which will automatically capture dominant colors. When you apply wallpaper, it applies the same colors across the entire OS.

  • A more cohesive UI.

  • Matching colors.

  • Some cool pairings are possible.

  • No custom color toggle (yet).

  • No advanced themes.

The notification shade, volume controls, widgets, lock screen, and menus all change to match the primary color. Set a red wallpaper, and you’ll see red everywhere. How cool is that?

Don’t worry, you should be able to disable the feature if you don’t want to use it.

Quick Tiles

In quick settings, usually, you see round icons. Android 12 will change it up, adding rectangular tiles with rounded edges.

  • More visible information.

  • Cleaner visuals.

  • They automatically match system colors.

  • Bigger tiles means fewer options.

  • No way to resize them.

  • The bright colors can be off-putting.

Tiles work like icons. A quick tap enables or disables functions, and a long press takes you to the related settings page. However, the tiles are bigger, so they can reveal more information. For icons that only show the title or name, the tiles will include more, like a list of WiFi networks available, nearby Bluetooth devices, and so on.

The larger size means you see fewer options in the quick settings panel, only four tiles at a time. You can customize the order and place the most critical tiles first. They also follow color extraction settings.

Privacy and Permissions Upgrades

A new privacy dashboard will give you complete control over what information apps can access, what they can change, and more. You can revoke permissions right from the dashboard if you don’t want shady apps accessing your camera or photos, no problem.

  • More control over permissions.

  • New mic and cam indicators.

  • Privacy dashboard.

  • More to manage.

  • Quick setting toggles are unnecessary.

New indicators will also appear in the status bar to let you know when apps use your device’s microphone or camera. There are new toggles in the quick settings to disable these sensors altogether.

Approximate location sharing is now offered to prevent apps from grabbing your exact location or address. There’s also more transparency about collected data and how it’s being used.

Android Private Compute Core

Android 12 will be adding something called the Android Private Compute Core. It is a system processing tool that allows more private interactions. All processing for live caption, now playing, and smart reply functions, for example, will now be carried out on the device—no sending information out to the network.

  • It’s said to improve privacy.

  • Processes tasks locally (on device).

  • Reduces network usage.

  • May reduce battery life.

  • Not much insight into how it works.

  • No user controls.

In short, it improves the local processing power of devices for privacy and security functions.

New Notifications

The notification system in Android 12 is also getting some upgrades to usability and aesthetics. Animations will be cleaner and faster. Interacting with notifications will be snappier and should be more reliable.

  • Cleaner visuals.

  • Snappier, faster notifications.

  • More reliable interactions.

  • Will break some apps.

  • Would be nice to see richer content.

Google is doing away with “trampolines.” Trampolines are notifications that take a long time to load the resulting application, even after tapping them. Instead, they will take you to an app in seconds. This change will break some apps, like Pushbullet, which sends notifications that don’t link to anything.

One-Handed Mode

Ever have problems trying to navigate your device with one hand? A new one-handed mode in Android 12 aims to be better. It works similar to the one-handed mode in iOS if you’ve ever seen it in action.

  • Easy to activate.

  • Makes one-hand use better.

  • Not customizable.

  • Only uses half of the screen.

After turning on the mode in settings, you can enable it by swiping down from anywhere at the bottom of the screen. Content at the top half of the screen will drop down, giving you better access to on-screen elements, like buttons and menus.

Android Runtime

Generally, system updates are delivered OTA, so you have to wait for your carrier to update and repackage a release. However, Google is now adding Android Runtime as a module to Project Mainline in Android 12. That means you’ll get some OS updates through Google Play packages instead of OTA.

  • Easy updates for the system.

  • Everyone gets updates at the same time.

  • Better security and stability.

  • Not everything can be updated.

  • Not clear how much will change.

This update will significantly impact hotfixes and security patches, which can be pushed directly through the Play Store instead of waiting weeks or months for a traditional OTA update.

Scrolling Screenshots and Markup

If you’ve ever had to take several screenshots to capture a conversation thread or stitch multiple images together, you know how frustrating it can be. Android 12 may add scrolling screenshots, allowing you to capture more of the screen real estate in a single image. It’s rumored but not confirmed yet.

  • Capture more of the screen.

  • No stitching images.

  • Markup is useful.

  • May not come with this update.

  • May not work with all apps.

  • Rough around the edges.

There are also new paintbrush and markup tools so you can add notations, Emojis, stickers, and other doodles to your screenshots. Samsung devices already include this, namely the Note lineup, but it’s nice to see in native Android, too.

New Widgets

Keeping in line with the visual and experience improvements, Android 12 will also include new system widgets. Some examples are a revamped weather widget to match the new visual enhancements, a conversation widget, and more. The widget selection menu is now a list, so there are more options on the screen at once.

  • New visual designs to match the UI.

  • New convenient widget selection list.

  • We don’t know how many widgets will be updated.

There’s no official list of all the new widgets being added, even with the Beta available, but they are coming.

What Else Is New in Android 12?

Alongside the confirmed Android 12 new features are some other rumored changes we may or may not see when the update launches.

To list a few: We may get AVIF image support, multi-channel audio with support for up to 24 channels, rich media content through the clipboard, optimizations for large display devices like tablets, and more.

  • What is Android 12 called?
  • Unlike most older versions, Android 12 doesn’t have an alternate name. Google stopped giving nicknames to each Android version starting with Android 10.
  • What is the Game Dashboard for Android 12?
  • Game Dashboard for Android 12 allows users to record gameplay footage, monitor frames-per-second, and activate Do Not Disturb mode while gaming. Game Dashboard integrates with your Google Play Games account.
  • What are Enhanced Notifications for Android 12?
  • Enhanced Notifications for Android 12 is an improved version of the Adaptive Notifications features introduced in Android 10. To use Enhanced Notifications, go to Settings > Notifications > Enhanced Notifications.

Unlike most older versions, Android 12 doesn’t have an alternate name. Google stopped giving nicknames to each Android version starting with Android 10.

Game Dashboard for Android 12 allows users to record gameplay footage, monitor frames-per-second, and activate Do Not Disturb mode while gaming. Game Dashboard integrates with your Google Play Games account.

Enhanced Notifications for Android 12 is an improved version of the Adaptive Notifications features introduced in Android 10. To use Enhanced Notifications, go to Settings > Notifications > Enhanced Notifications.

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