As we know that Google’s Android 12 will hit the markets in the second half of 2021. Google has released the first Android 12 developers preview ahead of its release in February this year.
The first preview gave us an early look at the next-gen Android and show a lot of changes that make Android more knowledgeable, better performing, and more secure. Meanwhile, after the successful launch of the first preview, the company has now published the second.
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The Developer Preview 2 includes a bunch of new and interesting features. Interested Pixel smartphone users can now manually download and check the Android 12 release timeline by going through the developer site.
However, the developer preview is not available for other smartphone users, still, they can get familiar with the newly added features. The features are mentioned below.
Android 12 features
Extended security for lock screen notification actions:
The Android 12 will add more security to the controls over the notifications displayed on the lock screen. Users will be able to configure the notification actions, so when these are accessed from the notifications it will show authentication besides revealing it. This extends the notification visibility controls already available through the notification APIs.
Support for Rounded corners:
The rounded corner functionality on the screen provides a clean and modern look. To deliver a great UX on these devices, developers need to account for the rounded corners and adjust any nearby UI elements to prevent them from being truncated.
Keeping companion device apps awake:
Companion devices such as smartwatches and fitness trackers that are needed to be managed through smartphones have also received something new for ease of use.
Google is expanding the Companion Device Manager with a new CompanionDeviceService API. Apps that manage companion devices can implement this service to let the system wake the app whenever the companion device is nearby.
Easier blurs, color filters, and other effects:
With Android 12, Google is making it easier to apply common graphics effects to our views and rendering hierarchies. Users can implement RenderEffect to apply blurs, color filters, and more to any RenderNode.
App overlay controls:
In the next-gen Android, there is another added functionality in the Android system alert which will now provide controls for whether these app overlays need to be shown on the top of the active app. Android’s system alert window gives apps a way to get user’s attention for important actions by showing then overlay on the top of the active app which can interrupt the users.
Access to app digests:
For apps that need to verify the integrity of app packages installed on Android devices, the company is introducing a new API that lets users query the platform directly for the checksum of an installed app. You can choose from several digest algorithms such as SHA256, SHA512, Merkle Root, and others.
Picture in Picture (PIP) improvements:
In this generation of multitasking, the picture-in-picture (PIP) function is the one that needs to be accessed easily access by the users. Google is making improvements to its PIP mode with the latest version.
Apps transition to PIP mode on swipe up-to-home has now been improved. If an app enables auto-PIP, the system now directly transitions the app to PIP mode on up-to-home, instead of waiting for the up-to-home animation to complete.
Bandwidth estimation improvements:
The Android 12 will provide an improved bandwidth estimation for the users for a better experience over the services. The bandwidth estimation has been enhanced to let users retrieve an estimate of aggregate throughput per carrier or Wi-Fi SSID, network type, and signal level, for all users on the device.
