Android 12 | Top 10 features you should know

Today at Google I/O 2021, we were presented with a new beta build of the next major version of Android. While the final, consumer-ready release isn’t expected until later this year, Android 12 is already shaping up to be one of the most significant updates to the platform in years.

Google is focusing on two main pillars with Android 12: personalization and privacy. The former is something Google’s version of Android has never adopted as a headline feature. And with Apple’s major focus on app tracking transparency in iOS 14.5, it’s more important than ever that Google shows users it’s listening and cares about people’s privacy.

There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s get to it.

Design changes and new features

This is one of the most significant updates to Android since Material Design was first introduced. There will be major visual changes, privacy and security updates, a new theming engine, and much more.

Android 12 will look entirely different from previous Android versions; it’s more modern and personal than ever. There’s a reason for that: Google developed a new theming engine for Android that extracts colors from your device’s wallpaper and applies them to various parts of the OS, such as your lock screen, quick settings panel, settings menu, widgets, and more.

The system identifies both primary and complementary colors of the wallpaper to apply to the software. And if you aren’t a fan of a particular color scheme, you can customize it.

Unfortunately, the first Android 12 beta does not have the new theming engine. That’ll be added in a release as we near closer to the final release this Fall. It’s coming, but we have to be patient. Dang! You can check out what it will look like in the video above.

In the first Android 12 beta, you get the same customization options you’d normally find on Android 11. You can choose from a number of pre-determined accent colors in the Styles & Wallpapers settings menu. Nothing is applied from your current wallpaper, though. Android 12 will also introduce all-new widgets and a new home screen layout, but again, those aren’t available yet. Those are also shown off in the video above.

The new customization options are all part of Google’s reboot of Material Design, called Material You. You can read more about that here.

Revamped quick settings and notification shade

The quick settings panel has always been one of the most functional tools on Android. This is where you access your brightness slider, various device settings, and even your media control notifications following the launch of Android 11.

Now it’s time for another major change.

The quick settings panel still exists, but it looks entirely different. Gone are the small circular icons and thin brightness slider. Each icon is a long, rectangular button containing the individual settings icon, description, and status.

The layout has changed significantly, too. Android 11 showed six quick settings icons with the first pulldown of the shade, then an expanded view of those six icons in three columns. Android 12 only shows four quick settings on the first pulldown, then two columns of four icons (totaling eight) on the second. It’s a small functional change, but I don’t see any issues with it so far.

Above the quick settings icons, the brightness slider is now much thicker than before. You can’t miss it. Below the icons are three new buttons for system controls: edit, settings, and power. Well, there will be three icons. In the first beta, you only get edit and settings buttons.

The media control notifications are still on the bottom but are more rounded than before. Functionality is the same as it was in Android 11. Now, though, Android 12 shows a small icon for changing your media output device. In Android 11, this was a much larger icon with the name of the media output device, which took up more space.

Google will add Google Pay cards and smart home controls in the quick settings menu, meaning Android 11’s dedicated power control menu will be sunsetted with this release.