So among the many surprises this week, earlier today Google announced the arrival of the 1st release of Android 12 Developer Preview. The highlight of this new update is on security & privacy but there’s more to it as well like a new UI, better performance, & better media experience to name a few.
We got a new refresh on the Notification shade that is faster, gives you custom content w/ icon + can expand to match other notifications. Android 12 will improve the Android experience on bigger devices like tablets, folding phones, & TVs. The new ART (Android Runtime) module that beefs up the runtime performance, manage memory better, & more w/o having to run a full system update.
As far as all of the changes it handles media, there’s a bunch of things going on here. The new update will allow you to transcode HEVC(H.265) + HDR (HDR10 & HDR10+) videos recorded on the device to AVC (H.264), will be able to mix audio + the phone’s haptic vibrator to create immersive experiences, support for gesture navigation while within the immersive mode, multi-channel audio enhancements, & more.
So for those of you looking to check it out to see what changes Google did on your device, you can grab it right now – at your own risk though. This isn’t part of the Android Beta program as you will have to flash it instead of an OTA download. That public beta will arrive sometime in May. The compatible devices are Google’s Pixel 5, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 4a, Pixel 3a/3a XL, and the Pixel 3/3 XL.
