Android 12 Developer Preview

Android 12 is the biggest update visually to the platform that we’ve seen in years, and alongside bigger overhauls like Material You, there are also a bunch of new animations. One new animation that’s not immediately obvious, though, is an updated charging animation when your Pixel phone is powered off.

While Android 12 stability is improving with every release, it’s still in beta, and some users last night received a reminder of that status via an absolute slew of system “Foreground Service BG-Launch Restricted” notifications that were generated by Gboard.

Following the launch on Wednesday, Google has opened the customary Android 12 Beta 3 survey for Pixel owners. 

Android 12 has brought a ton of new changes to smartphones, as we’ve detailed over the past few months. However, Android TV and Google TV are known for providing most updates independent of system versions. In Android TV 12 Beta 3, though, there are a few minor tweaks to Google TV and Android. Here’s what we’ve found.

Android 12 brings a lot of visual changes with it, and now the out-of-box-experience is being updated to match. With Android 12 Beta 3, Google is giving a fresh coat of paint to the setup experience on Pixel phones.

The stable Android 12 release has inched ever closer, with Android 12 Beta 3 dropping just a month after the second build. Following our other deep dives, we’ve been spending time with Android 12 Beta 3 to find the best new features and changes that you can try right now.

Following the first beta, Android 12 users immediately complained about how the ripple effect looked like a graphical bug. Google responded and promised updates, with Beta 3 today delivering a more subtle sparkle.

While Android 12 builds have been available for Android TV for months now, there have been no visible changes to the platform to date. Today, though, Google has finally detailed what’s new in Android TV 12, most notably delivering long-overdue support for 4K UI rendering.

Privacy is a big focus of Android 12, and one of the ways that Google is addressing it is with better notification of sensor usage. While it’s not live quite yet, we’ve discovered that Android 12 is working on a more obvious location indicator that matches what’s been changed with the camera and microphone.

Google has put more and more emphasis on making the “Recents” view in Android more useful in the past few years, and in Android 12, we’re getting one of the best pitches for that yet. With Android 12 Beta 3, Google Chrome is adding a handy link sharing button to the Recents multitasking menu.

The latest Android 12 Beta for Pixels includes an update to Google Camera 8.3, which now supports Material You colors with some UI tweaks to match.

With the removal of the awesome Active Edge in recent Pixel devices, the corner swipe activation gesture was seen as the replacement. In Android 12 Beta 3, you’re now able to completely deactivate the Assistant corner swipe.

One of the more frustrating elements of Android 12 Beta 2 was the removal of the ability to toggle Wi-Fi on or off quickly within the introduction of the “Internet” notification button. Android 12 Beta 3 is sort of fixing that problem with a “turn off Wi-Fi” button as part of the Internet pop-up.

You’ll often see a neat feature show up in third-party skins before they arrive in native Android, but the popular feature that is Scrolling Screenshots feels like it has taken an eternity to arrive. Today, though, Scrolling Screenshots are finally a part of native Android and, in turn, on Pixels, but the functionality differs a bit compared to what you’ll see on a Samsung device.

The third beta for Android 12 has just arrived and, with it, a brand new wallpaper picker that has better support for the new Material You theming language, including color options and also themed icons.

The previous beta at the start of June continued rolling out many of the mobile operating system’s upcoming consumer-facing capabilities and changes. Over the coming hours, we will dive into today’s Android 12 Beta 3 release to chronicle all the new features.

Compared to last year, Android 12 is pushing back the release candidate build by one version with Beta 3 rolling out today as another “incremental Beta-quality release.”

The latest Android 12 Beta from the start of this month is widely considered to have regressed on stability. As such, Google is releasing Android 12 Beta 2.1 today after going without patches for DP3 and Beta 1.