Hands-on with Android 12 Developer Preview: Here are the new features

Google just dropped the first Android 12 Developer Preview a few hours ago. Even though Android 12 “Snow Cone” is still a good six months away from the stable release, the Developer Preview reveals a good deal about what stock Android is likely to look like with this iteration. The recent Android 12 leaks and the long list of expected Android 12 features have kept us excited. And now, we are actually getting to use those features.

As the leaked documentation and screenshots had suggested previously, Android 12 gets a major design overhaul in terms of the user interface with the new Material NEXT design. Google is taking a more focussed approach towards human communications and prioritizing them over push notifications from apps. There are many more changes that improve privacy and performance, and we will be discussing those in this article.

Here are the prominent Android 12 changes that have caught our attention instantly:

New Material NEXT design

Over the years, we have observed a pattern with Android updates wherein Google brings drastic changes to the user interface with one version and focuses on functional improvements and under-the-hood changes with the next. This year appears to be dedicated to UI changes as Google brings a host of meaningful visual upgrades.

Here is everything we have spotted in this limited time using the Android 12 Developer Preview:

New Accent Color

Since Android 5 Lollipop, the stock Android interface has predominantly had a white background through the UI. With Android 10, Google added a Dark Theme and developer options to change the accent colors. Although it was spotted before the Android 10 stable release, Google decided to wait until Android 11 to bring the accent colors picker to the front as a full-fledged feature until Android 11.

With Android 12, the UI takes up a bluish tint visible in both light and dark themes. Unlike the leaked Android 12 screenshots that suggested that the UI might adapt to the background with the help of custom colors, we don’t see any option upfront to change this color. We will be exploring the Developer options to see if we can find something similar.

The light blue accent follows through the System UI within system apps, including Settings. The dialog boxes that show are also in this color.

Notifications and Quick Settings

With Android 11, Google slightly tweaked the notifications panel by adding spaces between conversations, app notifications, and silent notifications. That continues with Android 12, but instead of a completely transparent space separating the different categories, we see a translucent background with a lighter overlay in the background.

The inactive Quick Settings tiles now show a light blue color instead of gray, but there’s no visible change in the icons. The Quick Settings tiles’ default order has changed, and Android 12 brings the DND and Battery Saver toggles to the first card while pushing the mobile data toggle to the second card, and the location toggle out of the default Quick Settings.

Interestingly, Android 12 brings a “Reduce Bight Colors” option, and Quick Settings toggle that we also reported earlier. This is an accessibility feature that reduces the screen brightness in addition to the standard brightness control. You can also swipe up from the navigation bar at the bottom with two fingers for quicker access.

One-Handed Mode

With phone sizes getting out of hand, Google has brought a solution that Samsung implemented with One UI — and OnePlus adopted with OxygenOS 11. The Android 12 interface appears ready for easier one-handed usage. With large empty spaces towards the top of the display, you can access most of the options while using your phone with a thumb.

Google has also added a Feature Flag for “Silky Home” that pushes the items on a page further down to make them more easily accessible. The above screenshot should give you an idea about the feature.

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The post Hands-on with Android 12 Developer Preview: Here are the new features appeared first on xda-developers.

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