Google has unveiled the first beta release of the Android 12 open mobile platform. Android 12 is expected to be released in the third quarter of 2021. Firmware builds prepared for Pixel 3 / 3 XL, Pixel 3a / 3a XL, Pixel 4 / 4 XL, Pixel 4a / 4a 5G and Pixel 5 devices, as well as for some ASUS, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, TCL, Transsion devices , Vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE.
Among the most noticeable changes to the user:
- Proposed one of the most significant interface design updates in the history of the project. The new design implements the "Material You" concept, touted as the next generation of Material Design. The new concept will be automatically applied to all platforms and interface elements, and will not require application developers to make any changes. In July, application developers are scheduled to receive the first stable release of a new toolkit for developing graphical interfaces - Jetpack Compose.
In the platform itself, a new design of widgets stands out. Widgets have been made more visible, rounding of corners has been enhanced, and the ability to use dynamic colors that match the system theme has been provided. Interactive controls have been added, such as checkboxes and radio buttons (CheckBox, Switch and RadioButton), for example, allowing you to edit lists of tasks in the TODO widget without opening the application.
Implemented a smoother visual transition to applications launched from widgets. Simplified personalization of widgets - a button (a circle with a pencil) has been added to quickly reconfigure the placement of the widget on the screen, which appears when you long touch the widget.
Additional modes for limiting the size of the widget and the ability to use the adaptive layout of widget elements (responsive layout) to create typical layouts that change depending on the size of the visible area (for example, you can create separate layouts for tablets and smartphones) are provided. The widget picker interface implements a dynamic preview and the ability to display a widget description.
- Added the ability to automatically adapt the system palette to the color of the selected wallpaper - the system automatically detects the prevailing colors, corrects the current palette and applies changes to all interface elements, including the notification area, lock screen, widgets and volume control.
- Implemented new animation effects, such as gradual zooming in and smooth shifting of areas when scrolling, appearing and moving elements on the screen. For example, when canceling a notification on the lock screen, the time indicator automatically expands to take up the space that the notification previously occupied.
- The design of the drop-down area with notifications and quick settings has been redesigned. Added options for Google Pay and smart home control to quick settings. Holding down the power button provides a call to Google Assistant, which can be instructed to make a call, launch an application, or read an article aloud.
- Added a Stretch overscroll effect to indicate that the user has gone beyond the scroll limit and reached the end of the content. The image of the content with the new effect seems to stretch and spring back. The new end-of-scroll indication mode is enabled by default, but there is an option in the settings to revert to the old behavior.
- Optimized interface for devices with folding screens.
- Smoother audio transitions have been implemented - when switching from one application that outputs sound to another, the sound of the first is now smoothly muted, and the second is smoothly increasing, without overlapping one sound with another.
- Significant optimization of system performance was carried out - the load on the CPU of the main system services decreased by 22%, which in turn led to an increase in battery life by 15%. By reducing lock contention, reducing latency, and optimizing I / O, the performance of transition from one application to another has been improved and application startup time has been reduced.
In the PackageManager, when working with snapshots in read-only mode, lock contention is reduced by 92%. The Binder interprocess communication mechanism uses lightweight caching, which has reduced latency by 47 times for some types of calls. Improved performance for processing dex, odex, and vdex files resulting in faster application loading times, especially on devices with low memory. Launching apps from notifications is faster, for example, launching Google Photos from a notification is now 34% faster.
Improved performance of database queries through the use of inline optimizations in the CursorWindow operation. For small amounts of data, CursorWindow is 36% faster, and for sets that include more than 1000 rows, the speedup can be up to 49 times.
Criteria for classifying devices by performance are proposed. Depending on the capabilities of the device, a performance class is assigned to the device, which can then be used by applications to limit the functionality of codecs on low-powered devices or to handle higher-quality multimedia content on powerful hardware.
- Application hibernation mode has been implemented, which allows, if the user has not explicitly interacted with the program for a long time, to automatically reset the permissions previously granted to the application, stop execution, return the resources used by the application, such as memory, and block the launch of background work and sending push notifications. The mode can be used for most applications and allows you to protect user data that long-forgotten programs continue to have access to. If desired, hibernation mode can be selectively disabled in the settings.
- Added separate BLUETOOTH_SCAN permission to scan nearby Bluetooth devices. Previously, this ability was provided when you had access to the device's location information, which led to the need to grant additional permissions to applications that need to pair with another device via Bluetooth.
- The dialog for providing access to information about the location of the device has been modernized. The user is now given the opportunity to transfer information about the exact location to the application or provide only approximate data, as well as restrict the validity of permissions only to the active session with the program (prohibit access when in the background). The level of accuracy of the data provided when choosing a rough location can be changed in the settings, including in relation to individual applications.
The second beta release is expected to include a Privacy Dashboard interface with an overview of all permission settings, allowing you to understand what user data applications have access to). Indicators of microphone and camera activity will be added to the panel, with the help of which you can also forcefully turn off the microphone and camera.
- Instead of an edition for Android Wear wearable devices, together with Samsung, it was decided to develop a new unified platform that combines the capabilities of Android and Tizen.
- Enhanced Android editions for in-car infotainment and smart TVs.
- For a list of low-level innovations, see the developer preview of the first Android 12 releases.
Source: opennet.ru