Android 12 is the twelfth major release and 19th version of Android, the

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on ...

developed by the

Open Handset Alliance The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is a consortium of 84 firms to develop open standards for mobile devices. Member firms include HTC, Sony, Dell, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Google, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, T-Mobile, ...

led by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

. The first beta was released on May 18, 2021. Android 12 was released publicly on October 4, 2021, through

Android Open Source Project Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of ...

(AOSP) and was released to supported Google Pixel devices on October 19, 2021. Android 12 is the most popular Android version on smartphones at 30.03%. The first phones to have Android 12 were the Google Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro.

History

Android 12 (internally codenamed Snow Cone) was announced in an Android blog posted on February 18, 2021. A developer preview was released immediately, with two additional ones planned the following two months. After that, four monthly beta releases were planned, beginning in May, the last one of them reaching platform stability in August, with general availability coming shortly after that. The second developer preview was released on March 17, 2021, followed by a third preview on April 21, 2021. The first beta build was then released on May 18, 2021. It was followed by beta 2 on June 9, 2021, which got a bugfix update to 2.1 on June 23. Then beta 3 was released on July 14, 2021, getting a bugfix update to beta 3.1 on July 26. Beta 4 was released on August 11, 2021. A fifth beta, not planned in the original roadmap, was released on September 8, 2021. Android 12 stable got released on the

on October 4, getting its public over-the-air rollout on October 19, coinciding with the launch event for the

Pixel 6 The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are a pair of Android smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as the successor to the Pixel 5. The phones were first previewed in Au ...

Android 12.1/12L

In October 2021, Google announced Android 12L, an interim release of Android 12 including improvements specific for foldable phones, tablets,

desktop A desktop traditionally refers to: * The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor) Desktop may refer to various compu ...

-sized

screens Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing * Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry * Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which m ...

and

Chromebooks A Chromebook (sometimes stylized in lowercase as chromebook) is a laptop or tablet running the Linux-based ChromeOS as its operating system. Initially designed to heavily rely on web applications for tasks using the Google Chrome browser, Chromeb ...

, and modifications to the user interface to tailor it to larger screens. It was planned to launch in early 2022. Developer Preview 1 of Android 12L was released in October 2021, followed by Beta 1 in December 2021, Beta 2 in January 2022, and Beta 3 in February 2022. The stable version of Android 12L was released for devices with large screens on March 7, 2022, and was released as "Android 12.1" for Pixel smartphones on the same date, besides the Pixel 6 & Pixel 6 Pro.

Features

User interface

Android 12 introduces a major refresh to the operating system's

Material Design Material Design (codenamed Quantum Paper) is a design language developed by Google in 2014. Expanding on the "cards" that debuted in Google Now, Material Design uses more grid-based layouts, responsive animations and transitions, padding, and d ...

language branded as "

Material You Material Design (codenamed Quantum Paper) is a design language developed by Google in 2014. Expanding on the "cards" that debuted in Google Now, Material Design uses more grid-based layouts, responsive animations and transitions, padding, and d ...

", which features larger buttons, an increased amount of animation, and a new style for home screen widgets. A feature, internally codenamed "monet", allows the operating system to automatically generate a color theme for system menus and supported apps using the colors of the user's wallpaper. The smart home and Wallet areas added to the power menu on Android 11 have been relocated to the notification shade, while Google Assistant is now activated by holding the power button. Android 12 features native support for taking scrolling screenshots. The

screen magnifier A screen magnifier is software that interfaces with a computer's graphical output to present enlarged screen content. By enlarging part (or all) of a screen, people with visual impairments can better see words and images. This type of assistive te ...

feature now allows partial magnification via a floating window, and can also be configured to follow text inputs.

Platform

Performance improvements have been made to system services such as the window and package managers. The

Android Runtime Android Runtime (ART) is an application runtime environment used by the Android operating system. Replacing Dalvik, the process virtual machine originally used by Android, ART performs the translation of the application's bytecode into native ...

has been added to Project Mainline, allowing it to be serviced via

Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating syst ...

. Android 12 adds support for

spatial audio Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to sur ...

, and

MPEG-H 3D Audio MPEG-H 3D Audio, specified as ISO/IEC 23008-3 (MPEG-H Part 3), is an audio coding standard developed by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) to support coding audio as audio channels, audio objects, or higher order ambisonics (HOA). MPEG ...

, and supports transcoding of

HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In compari ...

video for backwards compatibility with apps which do not support it. A new API known as HapticGenerator allows the OS to generate haptic feedback from audio on compatible devices. A "rich content insertion" API eases the ability to transfer formatted text and media between apps, such as via the

clipboard A clipboard is a thin, rigid board with a clip at the top for holding paper in place. A clipboard is typically used to support paper with one hand while writing on it with the other, especially when other writing surfaces are not available. Th ...

. Third party app stores now have the ability to update apps without constantly asking the user for permission.

Privacy

OS-level

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

functions are

sandboxed In computer security, a sandbox is a security mechanism for separating running programs, usually in an effort to mitigate system failures and/or software Vulnerability (computing), vulnerabilities from spreading. The isolation metaphor is taken ...

within the "Android Private Compute Core", which is expressly prohibited from accessing networks. Apps requesting location data can now be restricted to having access only to "approximate" location data rather than "precise". Controls to prevent apps from using the camera and microphone system-wide have been added to the quick settings toggles. An indicator will also be displayed on-screen if they are active.

References

External links

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Video: 60+ changes in Android 12
{{Portal bar, Internet Android (operating system) 2021 software