On October 4, Google officially introduced the 12th iteration of its Android operating system, Android 12. The software maker announced that this version will be available to test on many smartphone makers including Samsung, Oppo, OnePlus, Relme, Tecno, Vivo, Xiaomi, and other devices.
Following Google’s information, over 225,000 people took part in the beta activity and sent over 50,000 issues and bug information to the company to help in resolving issues and improving the Android 12 software system.
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So without any further delay, here’s a look at some of what’s new in Android 12 for developers.
New Android User Interface
Material You:
There’s a new Android 12 design language called “Material You” that helps developers to polish their Android apps to the fullest.
Redesigned widgets:
The Redesigned widgets bring more useful and contentful widgets on the go with improved layout structure.
Notification UI updates:
The refreshed notification designs make them more modern and useful. Android 12 also decorates custom notifications with standard affordances to make them consistent with all other notifications.
Stretch overscroll:
To make app scrolling content more smooth, Android 12 adds a new “stretch” overscroll effect to all scrolling containers. It’s a natural scroll-stop indicator that’s common across the system and apps.
App launch splash screens:
The new OS introduces splash screens for all apps. Apps can customize the splash screen in a number of ways to meet their unique branding needs.
Performance
Faster, more efficient system performance:
Software is known for its performance and simplicity and Android 12 seems to promise something similar. Google said to reduce the CPU time used by core system services by 22% and the use of big scores by 15%.
They have also improved app startup times and optimized I/O for faster app loading and improved CursorWindow by as much as 49x for large windows for database queries.
Optimized foreground services:
To provide a better experience for users, Android 12 prevents apps from starting foreground services while in the background. Apps can use a new expedited job in JobScheduler instead.
More responsive notifications:
Android 12’s restriction on notification trampolines helps reduce latency for apps started from a notification. For example, the Google Photos app now launches 34% faster after moving away from notification trampolines.
Performance class:
Performance Class is a set of device capabilities that together support demanding use-cases and higher quality content on Android 12 devices. Apps can check for a device’s performance class at runtime and take full advantage of the device’s performance.
Faster machine learning:
Android 12 helps you make the most of ML accelerators and always get the best possible performance through the Neural Networks API. ML accelerator drivers are also now updatable outside of platform releases, through Google Play services, so you can take advantage of the latest drivers on any compatible device.
Privacy
Privacy Dashboard:
A new dashboard in Settings gives users better visibility over when your app accesses microphone, camera, and location data.
Approximate location:
Users have even more control over their location data, and they can grant your app access to approximate location even if it requests a precise location.
Microphone and camera indicators:
Indicators in the status bar let users know when your app is using the device camera or microphone.
Microphone and camera toggles:
On supported devices, new toggles in Quick Settings make it easy for users to instantly disable app access to the microphone and camera.
Nearby device permissions:
Your app can use new permissions to scan for and pair with nearby devices without needing location permission.
Better user experience tools
Rich content insertion:
Android 12 aims to deliver a new unified API that lets you receive rich content in the app’s UI from any source including
- Clipboard
- Keyboard
- Drag and drop
There’s also back compatibility added the unified API to AndroidX.
Support for rounded screen corners:
Many modern devices use screens with rounded corners. To deliver a great UX on these devices, you can use new APIs to query for corner details and then manage your UI elements as needed.
AVIF image support:
Android 12 adds platform support for AV1 Image File Format (AVIF). AVIF takes advantage of the intra-frame encoded content from video compression to dramatically improve image quality for the same file size when compared to older image formats, such as JPEG.
Compatible media transcoding:
For video, HEVC format offers significant improvements in quality and compression and we recommend that all apps support it. For apps that can’t, the compatible media transcoding feature lets your app request files in AVC and have the system handle the transcoding.
Easier blurs, color filters, and others:
New APIs make it easier to apply common graphics effects to your Views and rendering hierarchies. You can use RenderEffect to apply blurs, color filters, and more to RenderNodes or Views.
You can also create a frosted glass effect for your window background using a new Window.setBackgroundBlurRadius() API, or use blurBehindRadius to blur all of the content behind a window.
Enhanced haptic experiences:
Android 12 expands the tools you can use to create informative haptic feedback for UI events, immersive and delightful effects for gaming, and attentional haptics for productivity.
New camera effects and sensor capabilities:
New vendor extensions let your apps take advantage of the custom camera effects built by device manufacturers-bokeh, HDR, night mode, and others. You can also use new APIs to take full advantage of ultra-high-resolution camera sensors that use Quad / Nona Bayer patterns.
Better debugging for native crashes:
Android 12 gives you more actionable diagnostic information to make debugging NDK-related crashes easier. Apps can now access detailed crash dump files called tombstones through the App Exit Reasons API.
Android 12 for Games:
With Game Mode APIs, you can react to the players’ performance profile selection for your game – like better battery life for a long commute, or performance mode to get peak frame rates. Play as you download will allow game assets to be fetched in the background during install, getting your players into gameplay faster.
