Josh Hendrickson
Android 12 is a long way out, but developer previews already give us a sense of what’s in store. The first developer preview focused on a cleaner experience. The second preview adds better support for picture-in-picture mode (pip), rounded corners, lock screen security, and more.
This is, to be clear, still a developer preview. So the average person probably shouldn’t download and install Android 12 on their phone yet. But if you want an early peek into what’s coming or want to make sure your apps are compatible, then the second version of the Developer Preview is here.
This time around, Android is focusing on performance, privacy, and security features. To settle the latter, developers have new options with lock screen notifications. Developers can now configure notification actions always to trigger authentication. So if your text messaging program should require authentication before allowing a user to delete a message from the lock screen, it can now.
Round screens are getting better support too. More and more Android devices are ditching displays with corners in favor of a rounded off look. But that can lead to UI issues where notifications or a hamburger menu is cut off. Android 12 now has new APIs to call to give an app all the details about a phone’s corner and adjust accordingly.
Picture-in-picture mode sees some improvements as well, especially for gesture navigation users. If your app has auto pip mode enabled, using the swipe up to go home will automatically move an app to the pip mode. Apps can now resize themselves automatically as needed in pip mode, which should help prevent blocking essential items.
And with Android 12’s latest preview, smartwatches will get better support. Smartwatches typically call for a companion app to work with the watch. But if the app goes to sleep, the whole system breaks down. The second developer preview lets developers mark an app as a companion app to stay awake whenever a smartwatch is nearby and connected.
You can download Android 12’s developer preview today from the developer site.
Source: Android Developers
