Android 12 vs. Android 11: What your phone will be able to do when you upgrade

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Andrew Hoyle / CNET

Google’s new mobile operating system, Android 12, began rolling out to Pixel phones (for Pixel 3 and later) in October and will soon arrive on Samsung Galaxy, OnePlus, Xiaomi and other Android devices. Android users who don’t have a suitable Pixel device got a preview of the new OS at Google’s October Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro launch event, and there are a number of exciting new features that will give a reason. Android 11 users (or two or three) to update.

Android 12, which was first unveiled in February, appears to be similar in many ways to Android 11, with some great new features and some performance fixes aimed at helping your phone run smoother.

If you don’t own a Pixel and can’t wait for Google’s new operating system to arrive on your device, you can download and install the Android 12 developer preview right away. But keep in mind that, like the developer preview, probably it has a few bugs and is not meant for the average person to try at this point, especially not on your main device.

Here are three of the biggest new features we’ve seen so far in Android 12, compared to Android 11.

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Privacy features for apps

Google is adding several new privacy features to apps to give you more transparency and control. You can now see when an app is using the microphone or camera via an indicator on your phone’s status bar. You also have the option to completely disable all apps’ access to the microphone or camera in Quick Settings. Android 12 also lets you keep your exact location private by giving you an option to give apps your approximate location.

According to a February Android Developers blog post, one Android 12 update provides more information on how to use cookies across sites, while another changes the way apps export information to prevent them from accidentally exporting activities, services. and receivers.

It’s worth noting that these policies are less stringent than previously seen in Apple’s iOS 14 software releases, which include new app “nutrition labels” that tell people what personal data their apps are collecting and a change in iOS. 14.5 which requires developers to ask people for permission to collect data and track it across apps and websites. (And here are even more privacy features included in Apple’s iOS 15 update.)

Find out the latest news and the best reviews on smartphones and mobile carriers from CNET’s experts.

Notifications renewed

With Android 12, Google is changing the design of notifications to make them more modern and functional. When you tap a notification, it will take you directly to the app or action you want to take, instead of going through an intermediate service to initiate that action. This should make everything faster, according to the Android developer blog post.

Android 12 also has a new button that lets you snooze unimportant notifications and choose how long to do it. You can also turn on adaptive notification rating to allow Android to rearrange notifications based on how you work with different apps and reset the ranking if you don’t like it.

New one-handed mode

Android 12 also includes some design changes that make it easier to use Android phones with one hand and thumb. XDA developers noted that the updated settings UI moves the search bar to the bottom of the display for easier one-handed access. He also discovered a new feature called “silk house” which makes the whole interface more suitable for one-handed use.

For more information, check out everything there is to know about Android 12 and the best Android phones you can buy.

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