However, Pixel smartphones will not be getting the update to Android 12 today. According to Google’s blog post: Keep an eye out for Android 12 coming to a device near you starting with Pixel in the next few weeks and Samsung Galaxy, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi devices later this year. Pixel smartphones will still be the first to get the update, but in “the next few weeks” according to Google. It’s unclear why, if this is perhaps due to some more bugs that need to be worked out, or to get more third-party devices launching with Android 12 at the same time. As we have seen Samsung and ASUS already launch their Android 12 betas.
What’s new in Android 12?
On the surface, it might seem like Android 12 is a pretty small update. And, it kinda is. But that’s to be expected with an OS that is as mature as Android is these days. The big feature that everyone with a Pixel will notice is Material You. Google is redesigning Android yet again, but it isn’t as big as you might think. With Material You, Android 12 is going to pull out some colors from your wallpaper and use them as accents in things like the Quick Settings, lock screen clock and so on. Google has made this available for apps to use too. And the majority of Google’s own apps have been updated to support Material You. The other big feature is going to be the Privacy Dashboard. This is a new dashboard within the Settings app that will show you what permissions were used in the past 24 hours, and what apps were using them. So you can easily see which apps are abusing your permissions, as well as easily revoking those permissions as needed. Google is also adding microphone and camera indicators to the status bar when apps are using those permissions. So you can see when they are being used. There’s a lot of other changes in Android 12, but those are the two big ones that users will immediately notice. You can check out everything you need to know about Android 12 here.
