While some companies are struggling to deliver Android 11 to some of 2020 smartphones, Google is progressing with the development of Android 12. As the months are passing, the search giant is pushing its new firmware close to a stable release. Today, the search giant is rolling out the third developer preview. The release is right on schedule for Google’s launch timeline and precedes a beta launch which is scheduled for May. We expect this to coincide with the virtual edition of Google I/O. The company is expected to reveal all its plans with Android 12 and detail the update during its developer-centric conference.
The new Android 12 Developer Preview brings a bunch of updates. These updates will allow developers to get more out of a smartphone’s camera and haptic hardware. On the haptic front, Google is providing more feedback options for UI events, gaming, and productivity. One of the effects is called “Low Tick”. It allows Google to take advantage of the broader frequency bandwidth of the latest actuators. In games, developers can now access multiple, different actuators independently in game controllers. They will deliver the same effect synchronously or different haptic effects on multiple actuators.
Android 12 adds support for cameras with “Ultra-high-resolution”
The new release also adds improvements for camera support. It includes native support for ultra-high-resolution camera sensors. We assume that Google is expanding compatibility and what devs can do with these new smartphones coming with crazily high resolution. Google states that Android 12 will come with new platform APIs. These APIs will allow third-party apps to take full advantage of these versatile sensors. This is amazing, as sometimes is boring to see that only the native camera applications of certain devices can take photos in high-resolution or use a secondary camera like an ultrawide module.
The search giant also brings tweaks that will improve the experience when launching an application. Moreover, there is a new call notification template. According to Google, there’s a new app launch animation for all apps from the point of launch, a splash screen showing the app icon, and a transition to the app itself. The company is basically determining new standard design elements for the app launch. We assume that all this is part of Google’s Material NEXT approach. The company states, however, that developers are free to customize this animation and maintain their unique branding.
Furthermore, the latest preview introduces better call notifications. The incoming calls will have more visibility and scan-ability, and improve their consistency with other notification components. Other additions include new permissions for exact alarms, refreshed web linking, faster machine learning, and more.
Worth noting that the Developer Preview 3 is available only for the Pixel 3 and newer Pixel smartphones. You can download the builds from here. The final stable build will hit Pixel smartphones in September 2021. Of course, we expect many more details to appear ahead of the full release.
