The tech giant Google has released the third beta for Android 12. While the stable version hasn’t been released yet, this is the sixth version Google has released, including three developer previews and two public beta releases. The first beta includes major design changes to Android 12, and the second adds the Android 12 privacy dashboard and wallpaper-based theming.
Several more features were added with Google’s third beta, including scrolling screenshots and smarter auto-rotation. Here are the details of the new changes.
Game Modes:
Game Modes will be included in Android 12 beta 3, allowing you to select different playing games. These profiles can be battery-saving when you’re not near a charger or peak performance for the best frame rates. These APIs will be linked to the game dashboard and available as an overlay on top of games, allowing them to be accessed fast. Meanwhile, as you download, play allows game assets to be downloaded in the background during installation, allowing you to jump right into the action.
Scrolling Screenshots:
By scrolling screenshots in Android 12, users can take screenshots of scrollable content. This is useful for longer screens and chat windows that no longer need to be cropped with individual screenshots. For years, OEM skins like Xiaomi’s MIUI and OnePlus’ OxygenOS have featured the capability, but it will soon be enabled natively for the first time.
The functionality was implemented in the Android 11 beta, but due to the COVID-crisis and insufficient resources, it was never released as a stable version. Now that it’s part of Beta 3, users can expect the feature in the stable version of Android 12 and offer on phones from Motorola, Nokia, Google’s Pixel series, and others.
Better Auto-rotation:
Android 12 will also employ facial recognition and gyro-sensors to identify when a smartphone should be rotated. For example, when you want the device in portrait but are merely laying down on a couch or bed, this will result in fewer unwanted rotations. The facial recognition will be processed on-device as well, ensuring the security of the feature.
Other enhancements include tweaks to the rotating animation and the addition of a machine learning-driven gesture algorithm that will cut latency by 25% when the auto-rotate kicks in.
On-device search:
Google has added platform support for AppSearch, a new high-performance on-device search engine, with Beta 3. “With AppSearch, apps can index structured data and search over it with built-in full-text search capabilities, as well as employ native features like highly-efficient indexing and retrieval, multi-language support, and relevancy ranking,” according to Google in a blog post.
AppSearch will be available in two “flavors”: a local index for apps that enable searches through the new Jetpack AppSearch compatible library and a central index supported for the entire system.
Google added, “If you participate in the central index, the system can display your application data in the system user interface unless you decide not to. In addition, you can share data securely with other applications so that they are based on the application data you also search for yourself.”
Other Features are:
In WindowInsets, Android 12 beta 3 will feature new privacy indicator APIs that show whether an app is accessing the device camera or microphone. These APIs will allow programs to move the indicator in an immersive mode while still allowing users to see it. In addition, enterprise administrators can now customize the camera and microphone access toggles, which instantly deny permission for the camera and microphone from specific apps.
Kishor Kumar
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A well-versed Senior Full Stack Developer who has the expertise of providing front-end and back-end development services. He is an effective and efficient personnel who knows how to make the right technical decisions at the right time. He understands the basics of working collaboratively with stakeholders, engineers, executives, and end-users to bring the ideas to life. He is a top-performer and motivator who has the added advantage of technology as leverage to achieve timely results.
