Android 12 Beta Adds New Features And Looks

On the occasion of its developer conference I/O, Google announced a revision of its Android design language, which will initially start with Android 12 but will later be extended to all services.

As announced on Google I/O, plans are being made to further develop the material design introduced a few years ago, known as “Material You“. The aim is to bring the design that was implemented in 2014 up to date, with Google relying on adapted color schemes, eye-catching shapes, and new animations.

Basically, the focus is on personalizing what users already know from the pixel smartphones from Google’s own production. Although these offer a lot of consistency, there were practically no options for customization.

In the future, everyone will be able to adapt the colors and shapes of the surface and many of its elements to suit their own taste.

Among other things, the color scheme can be automatically adjusted based on the wallpaper selected by the user, whereby strong color combinations should often be used, which then also appear in the last corner of the operating system. The whole thing goes so far that you can choose the line width, contrast, size, and other properties of the interface yourself.

Uniform look on all devices

In addition, the user should have more options to adapt the shape of various objects in the user interface to his taste. In the long term, the individualized color scheme should also “follow” the user on his various Android devices, ie be synchronized via the Google account .

In addition to the new color scheme, Google is also introducing a number of other visual changes, above all-new designs for all widgets that Google makes available ex-works. New clocks, new weather widgets, new options for quick access to frequently used contacts, and easier access to preferred chats are just a small part of the innovations.

The new “Material You” design from Google will initially find its way onto Pixel smartphones from autumn. Gradually, however, it should be used in connection with practically all Google products, so that users of Google’s apps and web services can be prepared for products such as Gmail, web search, and other services to be given a similar look.

New Functions

In addition to the redesign, many other features are also planned for Android 12. New functions are planned that will make it easier to organize the protection of your own privacy. For this purpose, a new central dashboard is being created that gives the user the opportunity to track access to his data through apps and services down to the smallest detail.

In addition, Google wants to use Android 12 to ensure that the smartphones equipped with it can also serve as a kind of replacement for the car key. Another welcome innovation that Google plans to introduce later this year is the ability to use Android smartphones entirely without third-party apps or third-party manufacturers’ remote control for televisions and other devices.

The first beta version of Google Android 12 can now be downloaded for a number of selected smartphones. In addition to some models of the Google Pixel series, some devices from OnePlus, ASUS, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, TCL, Vivo and Xiaomi also get access to the beta builds.