Google Announces Android 12L, A Drop in Features for Big Screen Devices – TechCrunch

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Google today announced a preview of Android 12L, which may look like a new version of Android, but Google calls it “a drop in special features that makes Android 12 even better on large screens.”

The idea here is to provide users on Chrome OS tablets, foldable devices and laptops – anything with a screen greater than 600 dp – an improved user interface.

The developer preview of Android 12L is now available for developers who want to try it, as well as a new Android 12L emulator and its support in Android Studio.

But 12L is also for phones, says Google, without confusing anyone. Since you won’t really see most of the new features there, however, the focus right now is on other devices, with beta registrations for Pixel devices launching later in the preview.

Since Google calls it “feature reduction” and “feature update” in its announcement today, we’re not looking at a full fork of Android for these devices in the way Apple split iOS and iPadOS. Instead, it is an update for large-screen devices that introduces additional multitasking tools and an optimized user interface. By default, Android 12L is also expected to improve the appearance of apps on these devices.

Image Credits: Google

Specifically, this means that Google has refined the look of notifications, quick settings, lock screen, overview, and home screen on large screens. The system apps on Android 12L have also been optimized.

What’s probably more interesting here are the new multitasking features, with a new taskbar that is somewhat reminiscent of iPadOS. Android already supported split screen mode on tablets, but Google notes that it’s now more detectable. Just drag and drop an icon from the taskbar onto the screen to bring it up. This also means that every app on Android is now enabled to support split screen mode (something the developer previously had to adhere to).

Google plans to release 12L early next year, “in time for the next wave of Android 12 and foldable tablets.” We should probably expect to hear a lot about Android and foldable tablets at MWC then.

In addition to Android 12L, Google today also announced new features in OS and Play to allow developers to better support these devices. These include updates to its material design guide for large screen devices, but also updates to Jetpack Compose to make building easier for these machines and to ensure apps can more easily accommodate various screen orientations and sizes. Android Studio is also getting a resizable emulator to help developers test their apps on a wider variety of screen sizes, and a new visual tool to display UI warnings and tips when the layout has issues.

As for Google Play, the company will now check apps according to the big screen app quality guidelines, and search rankings will take the results into account. “For apps that aren’t optimized for large screens, we will start alerting large screen users with a warning on the app’s Play Store listing page,” says Google.

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