What Are The Key Features of Android 12?

Google has already released the third beta of its upcoming Android 12 to its Pixel devices and it won’t be long before the stable build is released. Android 12 brings a host of new features like a privacy dashboard, personalized themes, notification layouts, app hibernation and more. It’s okay if you don’t own a Pixel device. Who’s stopping you from knowing about the key features of Android 12?

So, what are you waiting for? Scroll down to know all about Android 12.

What is Android 12?

Before jumping into the key features, let’s learn a little about Android 12.

As you already know, Android is a mobile operating system by Google. Keeping up with their tradition of naming the versions, Android 12 will be called Snow Cone. And if you are wondering when it will be released, Google hasn’t announced it yet. A little bird told me that it might be in September 2021. You can check out the Beta version though.

Android, open-source software for touchscreens was first released in the year 2008. Since then, it has consistently released new versions every year with each version getting better and better. 

Want to know the key features of Android 12?

What are the Key features of android 12?

Privacy Dashboard

Nobody likes it when somebody else checks our phones. When I say someone, I don’t mean our family and friends. I’m talking about the apps that have access to our private information. And Android 12 has a solution for that. Privacy Dashboard!

With the Privacy Dashboard, you can check all the permissions and the data accessed by other apps in a single view. You can revoke the permissions for certain apps from here. Also, the top right of your status bar will indicate whenever an app accesses your microphone or camera.

Material You

How would you like it if you could just choose the colour palette and redesign the widgets? With Android 12, you can choose your wallpaper and the OS changes the theme accordingly thanks to the colour extraction protocol.

This design language called Material You allows the user to influence the design elements of the home screen, lock screen, widgets, notifications etc. You can take the customization to a whole new level.

App Hibernation

Do you have many unused apps that you don’t want to uninstall but take up a lot of space? With Android 12, you can just hibernate them. You can enable this option through the toggle in the app’s info. 

As the name suggests, App hibernation hibernates the unused apps by stripping all their permissions and clears all the temporary files and cache. 

Notifications

The very first thing that we do when we pick up our mobile phones is checking the notifications. Android 12 is bringing out some changes here too. The OS groups the notifications per app or separate if they are not conversations. 

Another addition to the notification window is the snooze option. Instead of swiping the notification and forgetting it later, you can just tap the snooze option and the phone will remind you again after a pre-set amount of time. How cool is that?

Scrolling Screenshots

Isn’t it a little frustrating when you have to take multiple screenshots of an entire webpage or conversation? Android 12 lets you take one long screenshot even if you don’t own a Samsung Galaxy phone.

All you need to do is take a screenshot as usual and tap the “capture more” button to scroll down and take more screenshots. You can crop and make other adjustments later.

Widgets

Don’t you think that opening the app through your widgets is a little bit extra work? Well, Android 12 is bringing out dynamic controls to widgets. It will let you tick the checkboxes, change the radio station, etc. Also, you can sort and search new widgets according to the categories. 

One-handed mode

Do you often use just one hand to operate your phone? Now, you have a special mode for that. All you have to do is activate it from the Android settings. One-handed mode brings the top part of the display downwards so that you can easily reach any button or icon. 

Conclusion

So these were some of the key features of Android 12 and there are a lot more features that you can enjoy once the Android 12 stable build releases.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you for the release of Android 12? Do you have any particular features that you are looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below!