Google has officially announced its latest Android 12 operating system on 18th May, at Google I/O 2021. Google I/O is an Android Developer Event, hosted by Google every year, to announce new designs & major upgrades in Android Operating Systems. First beta version of Android 12 is released, here is everything you should know about it.
Google released a preview of its latest OS Android 12 Developer Beta. In the past few months we have come across a group of developer previews, & now Android 12 has reached its beta stage. From what we know from Google I/O 2021, Android 12 will not only come with new services & designs such as LaMDA, Material You or WearOS; but it’s going to bring some interesting upgrades to the existing one’s including Google Maps, Photos & more.
With an abundance of new features Android 12 is going to bring, here are the top ones that you must know!
- Google’s “Material You” interface on Android 12. Get ready to change or revamp the look of your android device with this feature. This will allow users to personalize their devices with perfection.
- Google has introduced a new Private Compute Core, designed to maintain your audio & language information strictly to your device. It comes with features such as Live Caption, Now playing & Smart Reply, and will strictly stay out of the network’s way, because Privacy is everything.
- Get ready to experience LaMDA, short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications. It is an AI driven natural language understanding, which is “the Google’s latest breakthrough” as said by Google CEO, Sundar Pichai at Google I/O 2021.
- Google is collaborating with NorthWestern Medicine to develop an investigative device research study that will help improve understanding of breast cancer. The technology involves how AI can be applied to screening processes of disease such as Breast Cancer, Tuberculosis, with more efficacy. This AI driven Dermatology tool, is said to help in identifying a dermatitis condition, using the device’s camera.
- Google & Samsung, two tech giants have shaken their hands before on a number of occasions, which have resulted in providing us amazing devices, features, functions etc. Now, both the companies are again combining the foremost of their 2 OS into a unified platform i.e., WearOS. This technology focuses on providing faster performance, longer battery life and thriving developers community, and will elevate the way smartwatches work.
- SmartCanvas, Google’s next big step. This is a collaborative tool aimed to bridge the gap between collaborators & content creators. Plus, Google is bringing the “Meet” feature directly into the Docs, Sheets & Slides for the first time.
- Google’s “Project Starline”, as its name suggests it indeed is a star project of Google. Google has been working on this project for several years. It uses high-resolution cameras, & custom built depth sensors & captures the shape & appearance of a person from different perspectives, & creates a 3-D model of that same person; providing us a realistic representation of someone, like they are sitting right in front of your eyes.
As of now the Project Starline is available only in a few offices of Google, but Google CEO said “it would be fun to give users a look at people experiencing it for the first time”.
- Gain more control over apps with Google’s new Privacy Dashboard. This feature will allow users to look into your application permission settings & what data a particular application can access & how frequently.
- Experience the brilliance of photography at your doorstep with Google’s improved Camera. Google with the help of Photography industry experts to bring a more accurate & all-inclusive camera with auto white balance adjustments, that reduces light stray & prevents over-brightening of darker skin tone.
- An improved AI driven Google map, tailored specially for individual users. This feature allows you to share your approximate location with the application, instead of the exact one. Plus, it will save from walking extra meters, by providing you on -site navigation. In a blog post by Google, it mentioned that “Google will automatically recommend you a new or alternate route if the ETA is the same or the difference is minimal. We believe that these changes have the potential to eliminate 100 million hard-braking events in routes driven with Google Maps each year,”
Other features of Android 12 includes, one-hand mode, colour extraction, Google assist at power button, Wi-Fi sharing with nearby button, remote support, more responsive devices with improved power efficiency.
Well, now it seems Google has literally announced so many features it is really hard to keep a track of each one now. After reading about Google’s Android 12 Beta features, the next question is “What devices are qualified to install this latest Android 12 Beta?”
Without an ounce of doubt, Google’s Android 12 beta version is available for pixel devices, starting from Pixel 3. Apart from Pixel series, other devices that are qualified for the update includes handsets from Asus, OnePlus, Tecno, Realme, Sharp, Xiaomi, TCL, Oppo, Vivo & ZTE.
- Asus’s newly launched ZenFone 8 series, is qualified to download & install Android 12 beta version. However, the model is yet to launch in India, but once it does users will be able to experience Android 12 beta.
- Recently launched the OnePlus 9 & 9 pro, can experience a quick peek at the Android 12 beta at the official OnePlus website. But OnePlus users are facing bricking issues after installation of Android 12 beta, the company removed Android 12 downloading links from the website.
- Tecno’s Camon 17 is set to acquire Android 12 beta version. It’s a budget phone with impressive features, and has not made its way into Indian market. But, we hope to see it soon.
- Realme’s latest GT phone will get the Android 12 beta version, and as per reports will be made available for China users first. There is no official date about its launch in India, yet.
- Xiaomi’s Mi 11 series which includes, Mi 11, Mi 11 ultra, Mi 11i & Mi 11X Pro, is also qualified to run on Android 12, but users will need to flash the preview build first, before they use it. The latter two handsets of Mi 11 series i.e., Mi 11i & 11X Pro are available in India.
- Oppo’s X3 Pro & Vivo’s IQOO7, both devices are qualified to use Android 12. While Oppo’s X3 pro has not launched in India yet, IQOO7 is already available in India. As per the reports, Vivo is expected to obtain Android 12 beta, second version soon.
If your device is eligible for installation of Android 12 beta version, and you can’t wait to install it; then one thing you should remember is, it is only a preview version & it might come with few bugs.
Chetna Singh
A biblomaniac, with utmost love for reading, writing and painting. An asthete and altruistic.
