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Plenty of Android phones are yet launching with Android 10, which is now more than a twelvemonth old. Fifty-fifty Android 11 is starting to look like old news now that we've gotten our get-go look at Android 12. The first developer preview is available today, and yous tin have a peek at the new OS if yous've got a contempo Pixel telephone. Be warned: this is a very early build that y'all should not use on your main telephone.

Because this is the start developer preview, most of the notable changes are under the hood. There'due south support for HVEC transcoding, AVIF image format, and several new Mainline modules. That concluding one might have some important user-facing advantages, though. Mainline is the organisation Google uses to push device updates through the Play Store. There are already numerous system modules in Mainline, simply Android 12 adds the Android Runtime (ART) compiler to the listing. So, even if your phone isn't getting system updates at the rate you'd like, your app compatibility should better starting with Android 12.

Google has also confirmed that Android 12 will run across some important changes to notifications. Developers will have tools at their disposal to make notifications open up faster, and the UI should look different once y'all're on the new OS. Google promises enhanced privacy and security tools, as well.

Some of the rumored Android 12 features, such every bit a new UI and scrolling screenshots, aren't in the preview. Only there's some evidence these features are hiding in an unfinished class deep down in the code. We expect more features to appear equally the OS evolves over the coming months. And Google will take a lot of opportunities to add together things. Updates for Android 12 should go far roughly in one case per month. The starting time three updates volition be new developer previews, but the final four will be betas.

Android 12 won't launch in its final form until this fall, just the programmer preview allows devs to get their apps ready for the new platform. You tin can use Android 12 on your phone even if y'all're not a developer, but you'd be further ahead to expect for the beta release. The betas will be more stable, feature-rich, and easy to install. To get the developer preview, you demand to manually wink the preview image, which Google has posted online. The betas volition get out as OTA updates once you've signed up for the beta on Google's beta site, which is not live at this fourth dimension. You'll need a Pixel 3 or newer to install the pre-release versions, though. Android 12 will come up to more phones in late 2021 and early 2022.

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