Android 12 review: The biggest changes in years

Our Verdict

Android 12 has landed for Pixel phones, with the update for other mainstream phones to come in the next few months. The highlight is Cloth You, a new design linguistic communication that caters itself to your tastes past theming itself based on the colors in your wallpaper. Privacy is also another major feature in Android 12, from the Private Compute Core to the Privacy Dashboard.

For

• Fresh Fabric Y'all pattern language and theming organisation
• Potent focus on privacy
• New Game Dashboard
• Plenty of other useful tweaks and features

Against

• Material You dependent on 3rd-political party developers

Tom'southward Guide Verdict

Android 12 has landed for Pixel phones, with the update for other mainstream phones to come up in the side by side few months. The highlight is Material You, a new design linguistic communication that caters itself to your tastes past theming itself based on the colors in your wallpaper. Privacy is also another major feature in Android 12, from the Private Compute Cadre to the Privacy Dashboard.

Pros

• +

  Fresh Material You design language and theming system

• +

  Stiff focus on privacy

• +

  New Game Dashboard

• +

  Plenty of other useful tweaks and features

Cons

• -

  Material You dependent on third-party developers

Central Android 12 features

• New lock screen
• A new theming arrangement
• Quick Settings visual overhaul
• More meaty notification shade
• New Settings menu
• Conversation widgets
• Thicker volume and brightness sliders
• More than responsive notifications
• New privacy dashboard

Android 12 shows that mobile software has come a long way since its inception. What once started off every bit an upstart to claiming Apple's iOS in the dawn of the modern smartphone, Android has since grown into its own. Lately, Google has abandoned the public dessert codenames — to the chagrin of many, myself included — and focused on making Android a more mature operating system. That's very much in show in Android 12.

Just with Android 12, Google also has taken i of the operating organisation's core tenets to the extreme. Since basically the beginning, Android has been all well-nigh customization and making the phone feel like yours. Contrast this to Apple's singular vision for iOS, which has only recently added some more than personalization features in iOS 14 and iOS fifteen.

This year, Google redesigned the whole OS from the ground up with the new Material Yous pattern language. An evolution of the Material Design we've seen over the terminal several years, this new direction takes a focus on y'all and molds its color palette to your wallpaper. Just Android 12 isn't all about a pretty veneer. Google has also taken a stance on privacy.

Android 12 is a render to something that actually drew me to the Os in the first place. For the first time in a long while, Android is fun again. I've spent the better part of this year running the developer previews and betas on a Pixel 5, and now that the update has officially landed, I can finally write a full review. And with the Pixel 6 at present available, Android 12 has an even better adventure to shine.

Android 12 review: Personalization to a new caste

Android 12's highlight feature is Material You, a pattern language that caters itself to you. The secret is that the organisation at present pulls out complementary colors based on your wallpaper and themes itself with them. Your Quick Settings, the Settings menu, Gboard, Messages, and many more apps get tweaked.

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

But let's say you lot don't like the color that Android picked. Y'all can head into the Wallpaper & Personalization section in Settings and choose from a option of other colors that the system picked out. There's as well a predetermined option y'all can opt for.

Textile You is the biggest facelift Android has gotten since Material Design debuted on Android 5.0 Lollipop in 2014. Seven years in the making, Material You definitively establishes an Android design scheme and, for better or for worse, information technology'due south made itself the de facto look for the operating system. What phone makers like Samsung or OnePlus exercise with their Android 12 skins might differ from this new vision, but stock Android shrugs off the office-over-course mentality that we've seen for a very long time; we could too meet that reflected in minimalist skins like Asus' ZenUI and Motorola's MyUX.

(Prototype credit: Tom'due south Guide)

Everything is unlike in Android 12, fifty-fifty sliders, Quick Settings toggles and the volume bar. Android 12 is all about roundness, and some might not like it. We saw the early on beginnings of this switch back in Android 11. But it'southward amazing how fast you adapt — fifty-fifty when you look back to Android x, the blocky design already looks old and outdated. All hail the rounded corners, which fifty-fifty extend to the notification shade (which has a slick, smoothen animation that transitions into the Quick Settings).

With the Android 12 facelift came some new widgets, like new clock and conditions options. All of these elements spell the core of what Fabric Yous is all near: a more personalized, accessible Android. Cloth You goes beyond just the theming engine, though; it is a cadre set of principles that define a new direction for Android and Google apps.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

After spending months with the new pattern scheme, I love Cloth You lot. One time you lot get the theming options figured out — notably, picking one of the preset options if you love your wallpaper and hate the colors the system suggests — it's a wonderful feel that reminded me of why I dear Android. While iOS does a lot of things right, it's hard to make an iPhone feel like yours. Widgets and the App Library have helped, but they're a far weep from what Android now offers.

Android 12 review: Bigger focus on privacy

Privacy has get a big deal in contempo years, and Android historically hasn't had the best reputation in this regard. From apps constantly tracking you to the sheer corporeality of information that Google collects from each device, Android is a far weep from a private system.

At the core of Android 12 is the Private Compute Cadre (PCC) and Privacy Dashboard. The latter is pretty self-explanatory and I'll come back to it in a minute. It's the PCC that interests me — it's essentially a separate sectionalisation that Google uses to house the data it needs to train the AI functions similar Now Playing and Enhanced auto-rotate. The data stored hither never leaves your device.

(Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

Private Compute Core is Google's workaround for keeping your data private while also providing the best AI features for your Pixel. If anything, it'southward long overdue and I'm glad to see it here in Android 12. But it also goes manus-in-hand with the Privacy Dashboard, which is a more user-focused improver to Android 12. Here, you can see which apps have called on diverse permissions — notably location, camera, and microphone. It'southward basically a tell-all for what your apps are doing in the background.

The Privacy settings at present include private toggles for the photographic camera and microphone that plow those features off entirely for all apps. Until at present, you lot'd have had to toggle the camera and microphone off for every app 1 at a time. Y'all can also add camera and mic toggles to the Quick Settings to quickly enable or disable them. And finally, Android will now show an indicator in the tiptop corner of your screen when an app is accessing the camera and/or microphone, a la iOS.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

What remains lacking in Android 12 is an easy fashion to tell apps to not track you, like to iOS' App Tracking Transparency initiative. Granted, yous can all the same exercise something akin to that in Android. Simply caput to Settings > Google > Manage your Google Business relationship > Manage your data & privacy > Advertizement personalization, which you tin toggle off or edit. Information technology'southward by no means as unproblematic or straightforward as Apple tree'south method, though.

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

All of the new Android 12 privacy and security features won't compensate for bad habits. The adage of staying careful still holds true — don't sideload apps you don't trust and beware apps from the Play Store that ask for permissions you don't desire to grant. At least Android 12 lets you lot choose if y'all want an app to accept precise or estimate location admission at present.

Our security expert Paul Wagenseil has already broken downwards the new privacy and security stuff for Android 12 and the Pixel 6 (where the line between the two is a flake muddy). You can read more about the Android 12 privacy and security upgrades if you'd like.

Android 12 review: Making notifications even better

I of Android'southward core strengths is notifications. Simply put, the OS handles them far better than anything Apple has e'er done, thanks to Android's intelligent grouping and easily actionable items. Fifty-fifty better, notifications don't just disappear from your lockscreen when you unlock the phone — this is something that drives me absolutely insane on an iPhone.

WIth Android 12, notifications have not only gotten prettier (read: rounder), but smarter besides. Apps updated for Android 12 tin no longer use what's called a notification trampoline, which is effectively a stall while the app loads. This has led to the system hanging for a brief moment while the app opens. In my experience, this has been most noticeable with Discord. But now, apps tin no longer call the startActivity() intent inside a notification item. Android 12 addresses the notification trampoline delay with a cleaner, more responsive experience, sometimes with pregnant results.

So while the new notification shade design and animations are pretty, just know that there'southward a lot going on under the hood to ensure that everything gets grouped and surfaced properly and that notifications are basically immediately responsive (assuming the developer has updated the app for Android 12).

Android 12 review: Game Dashboard, universal device search and more

With Android 12, Google finally got the memo that people play games on their phones. Stock Android has a dedicated gaming mode. Called Game Dashboard, it features some nice options, including a framerate counter, YouTube Alive streaming shortcut, optimization for some games, and shortcuts for screenshots or screen recording. Whenever you're in a game, you'll see a little pointer from which you can admission these options. I'd like to run into options for Twitch and Discord, simply at least Game Dashboard has some solid features from the starting time.

(Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

Android 12 likewise introduces universal device search similar to what Apple offers in iOS fifteen. This is different from the Google search bar widget. It allows you to search your phone for files, contacts, and apps. 3rd-party launchers accept had things similar to this for a while, merely now it's broiled into the Pixel Launcher. Word has it that this will open up to third-party launchers with a new API.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Universal device search is nevertheless a fleck backside Spotlight on iOS 15, where you can also do web searches, find apps in the App Shop, and even get results in Maps. I'd like to see Google copy this outright. Just give us a 1-terminate store for searching the spider web, Maps, the Play Store, Drive (and open to other apps like Dropbox) and the phone itself. This is but the start and Google could really aggrandize upon it in Android 13 and beyond.

Nosotros get a lot of new, smaller features in this update, too, the most important of which I'll briefly summarize. Android 12 at present has a i-handed mode built in, letting you meliorate use your phone with — you guessed it — i manus. Motion-picture show-in-movie windows now fit the rounded aesthetic, versus the abrupt corners of the past.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Google has finally addressed one of the near longstanding parts of Android, the Open With dialog box. While this has been beneficial for establishing default apps, it'south long bellyaching me with links — Amazon is especially an issue. But in Android 12, Verified Links can tell your phone what app to open, based on the URL itself. Information technology's a pocket-size thing, just boy practise I dearest it.

Native scrolling screenshots have finally landed in Android. This lets y'all screenshot more than merely what you lot can see on your screen. This is bang-up for people who want to snag a long chat or web page. Another characteristic nosotros saw in the betas, Enhanced car-rotate uses the forepart-facing camera to detect when you're laying on your side and disable auto-rotate. This is a huge boon for people who read their phones in bed.

Android 12 has a whole host of even smaller features and tweaks, so I encourage you to play around with the update on your phone to run into what'southward new. And if yous're not using a Pixel, expect other telephone makers similar Samsung and OnePlus to add together their own stuff equally usual.

Android 12 review: issues

Nosotros didn't come across whatsoever notable issues while trying out Android 12. However every bit with all new software, bugs and side effects can happen.

Currently, the only widespread issue we've encountered with Android 12 is that it may be causing severe battery drain on Google Pixel phones. These are currently the only phones with Android 12 available by default, and then we may run across more phones and more than problems down the line.

Android 12 review: Verdict

(Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

Android 12 is a big update, complete with a whole new look and focus on privacy. Google went all out to make the new version entreatment to more people, peculiarly with the Cloth You theming arrangement. While the rounded artful is a bit farthermost in some places, I think Android is in a expert spot visually.

Of course, there's always room for improvement. I want to see universal device search expand to something akin to iOS' Spotlight. Game Dashboard could grow to include Twitch integration and a necktie-in to Discord for game status — the Discord vocalisation overlay is all the same possible, but it could be better for gamers.

Over the next twelvemonth, Google is gear up to drop more than Android 12 features, especially for Pixels. We're already looking toward Android 12L, which is introducing an optimized UI for foldable phones and tablets. That has led to speculation that Google is readying its own Pixel Fold (though rumors of that have fizzled out).

I definitely recommend updating to Android 12 when you can. Information technology's a worthy update and I think you'll enjoy all of the new features.

Jordan is the Phones Editor for Tom's Guide, covering all things phone-related. He's written most phones for over five years and plans to continue for a long while to come up. He loves zip more than relaxing in his home with a book, game, or his latest personal writing project. Jordan likes finding new things to dive into, from books and games to new mechanical keyboard switches and fun keycap sets. Jordan tends to lurk on social media, but yous can best accomplish him on Twitter.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/android-12

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