Android 12 is live in AOSP!

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering

At present we’re pushing the source to the Android Open Source Venture (AOSP) and formally releasing the newest model of Android. Preserve an eye fixed out for Android 12 coming to a tool close to you beginning with Pixel within the subsequent few weeks and Samsung Galaxy, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi gadgets later this yr.

As all the time, thanks on your suggestions throughout Android 12 Beta! Greater than 225,000 of you examined our early releases on Pixel and gadgets from our companions, and also you despatched us almost 50,000 subject experiences to assist enhance the standard of the discharge. We additionally admire the numerous articles, discussions, surveys, and in-person conferences the place you voiced your ideas, in addition to the work you’ve achieved to make your apps suitable in time for at present’s launch. Your assist and contributions are what make Android such an amazing platform for everybody.

We’ll even be speaking about Android 12 in additional element at this yr’s Android Dev Summit, developing on October 27-28. We’ve simply launched extra data on the occasion, together with a snapshot of the technical Android periods; learn on for extra particulars later within the submit.

What’s in Android 12 for builders?

Right here’s a have a look at a few of what’s new in Android 12 for builders. Be sure that to take a look at the Android 12 developer website for particulars on the entire new options.

A brand new UI for Android

Materials You – Android 12 introduces a brand new design language referred to as Materials You, serving to you to construct extra customized, stunning apps. To carry the entire newest Materials Design 3 updates into your apps, attempt an alpha model of Materials Design Parts and look ahead to assist for Jetpack Compose coming quickly.

Redesigned widgets – We refreshed app widgets to make them extra helpful, stunning, and discoverable. Attempt them with new interactive controls, responsive layouts for any system, and dynamic colours to create a personalised however constant look. Extra right here.

Notification UI updates – We additionally refreshed notification designs to make them extra fashionable and helpful. Android 12 additionally decorates customized notifications with normal affordances to make them per all different notifications. Extra right here.

Stretch overscroll – To make scrolling your app’s content material extra easy, Android 12 provides a brand new “stretch” overscroll impact to all scrolling containers. It’s a pure scroll-stop indicator that’s frequent throughout the system and apps. Extra right here.

App launch splash screens – Android 12 additionally introduces splash screens for all apps. Apps can customise the splash display screen in quite a few methods to satisfy their distinctive branding wants. Extra right here.

Efficiency

Sooner, extra environment friendly system efficiency – We diminished the CPU time utilized by core system providers by 22% and the usage of large cores by 15%. We’ve additionally improved app startup occasions and optimized I/O for quicker app loading, and for database queries we’ve improved CursorWindow by as a lot as 49x for big home windows.

Optimized foreground providers – To offer a greater expertise for customers, Android 12 prevents apps from beginning foreground providers whereas within the background. Apps can use a brand new expedited job in JobScheduler as an alternative. Extra right here.

Extra responsive notifications – Android 12’s restriction on notification trampolines helps scale back latency for apps began from a notification. For instance, the Google Pictures app now launches 34% quicker after shifting away from notification trampolines. Extra right here.

Efficiency class – Efficiency Class is a set of system capabilities that collectively assist demanding use-cases and better high quality content material on Android 12 gadgets. Apps can verify for a tool’s efficiency class at runtime and take full benefit of the system’s efficiency. Extra right here.

Sooner machine studying – Android 12 helps you profit from ML accelerators and all the time get the very best efficiency by the Neural Networks API. ML accelerator drivers are additionally now updatable outdoors of platform releases, by Google Play providers, so you’ll be able to reap the benefits of the newest drivers on any suitable system.

Privateness

Privateness Dashboard – A brand new dashboard in Settings offers customers higher visibility over when your app accesses microphone, digital camera, and placement information. Extra right here.

Approximate location – Customers have much more management over their location information, and so they can grant your app entry to approximate location even when it requests exact location. Extra right here.

Microphone and digital camera indicators – Indicators within the standing bar let customers know when your app is utilizing the system digital camera or microphone. Extra right here.

Microphone and digital camera toggles – On supported gadgets, new toggles in Fast Settings make it straightforward for customers to immediately disable app entry to the microphone and digital camera. Extra right here.

Close by system permissions – Your app can use new permissions to scan for and pair with close by gadgets while not having location permission. Extra right here.

Higher person expertise instruments

Wealthy content material insertion – A brand new unified API allows you to obtain wealthy content material in your UI from any source: clipboard, keyboard, or drag-and-drop. For back-compatibility, we’ve added the unified API to AndroidX. Extra right here.

Help for rounded display screen corners – Many fashionable gadgets use screens with rounded corners. To ship an amazing UX on these gadgets, you should utilize new APIs to question for nook particulars after which handle your UI components as wanted. Extra right here.

AVIF picture assist – Android 12 provides platform assist for AV1 Picture File Format (AVIF). AVIF takes benefit of the intra-frame encoded content material from video compression to dramatically enhance picture high quality for a similar file dimension when in comparison with older picture codecs, akin to JPEG.

Appropriate media transcoding – For video, HEVC format provides vital enhancements in high quality and compression and we advocate that every one apps assist it. For apps that may’t, the suitable media transcoding function lets your app request recordsdata in AVC and have the system deal with the transcoding. Extra right here.

Simpler blurs, shade filters and different results – new APIs make it simpler to use frequent graphics results to your Views and rendering hierarchies. You should utilize RenderEffect to use blurs, shade filters, and extra to RenderNodes or Views. It’s also possible to create a frosted glass impact on your window background utilizing a brand new Window.setBackgroundBlurRadius() API, or use blurBehindRadius to blur the entire content material behind a window.

Enhanced haptic experiences – Android 12 expands the instruments you should utilize to create informative haptic suggestions for UI occasions, immersive and pleasant results for gaming, and attentional haptics for productiveness. Extra right here.

New digital camera results and sensor capabilities – New vendor extensions let your apps reap the benefits of the customized digital camera results constructed by system producers—bokeh, HDR, night time mode, and others. It’s also possible to use new APIs to take full benefit of extremely high-resolution digital camera sensors that use Quad / Nona Bayer patterns. Extra right here.

Higher debugging for native crashes – Android 12 offers you extra actionable diagnostic data to make debugging NDK-related crashes simpler. Apps can now entry detailed crash dump recordsdata referred to as tombstones by the App Exit Causes API.

Android 12 for Video games – With Recreation Mode APIs, you’ll be able to react to the gamers’ efficiency profile choice on your recreation – like higher battery life for a protracted commute, or efficiency mode to get peak body charges. Play as you obtain will permit recreation property to be fetched within the background throughout set up, getting your gamers into gameplay quicker.

Get your apps prepared for Android 12

Now with at present’s public launch of Android 12, we’re asking all Android builders to end your compatibility testing and publish your updates as quickly as doable, to provide your customers a easy transition to Android 12.

To check your app for compatibility, simply set up it on a system operating Android 12 and work by the app flows on the lookout for any useful or UI points. Overview the Android 12 conduct adjustments for all apps to concentrate on areas the place your app could possibly be affected. Listed here are a number of the high adjustments to check:

• Privateness dashboard — Use this new dashboard in Settings to verify your app’s accesses to microphone, location, and different delicate information, and contemplate offering particulars to customers on the explanations. Extra right here.
• Microphone & digital camera indicators — Android 12 exhibits an indicator within the standing bar when an app is utilizing the digital camera or microphone. Be sure that this doesn’t have an effect on your app’s UI. Extra right here.
• Microphone & digital camera toggles — Attempt utilizing the brand new toggles in Fast Settings to disable microphone and digital camera entry for apps and make sure that your app handles the change correctly. Extra right here.
• Clipboard learn notification — Look ahead to toast notifications when your app reads information from the clipboard unexpectedly. Take away unintended accesses. Extra right here.
• Stretch overscroll — Attempt your scrolling content material with the brand new “stretch” overscroll impact and make sure that it shows as anticipated. Extra right here.
• App splash screens — Launch your app from varied flows to check the brand new splash display screen animation. If mandatory, you’ll be able to customise it. Extra right here.
• Keygen adjustments — A number of deprecated BouncyCastle cryptographic algorithms are eliminated in favor of Conscrypt variations. In case your app makes use of a 512-bit key with AES, you’ll want to make use of one of many normal sizes supported by Conscrypt. Extra right here.

Keep in mind to check the libraries and SDKs in your app for compatibility. When you discover any SDK points, attempt updating to the newest model of the SDK or reaching out to the developer for assist.

When you’ve revealed the suitable model of your present app, you can begin the course of to replace your app’s targetSdkVersion. Overview the conduct adjustments for Android 12 apps and use the compatibility framework to assist detect points rapidly.

Tune in to Android Dev Summit to study Android 12 and extra!

The #AndroidDevSummit is again! Be part of us October 27-28 to listen to in regards to the newest updates in Android improvement, together with Android 12. This yr’s theme is wonderful apps, throughout gadgets; tune in later this month to study extra in regards to the improvement instruments, APIs and expertise that can assist you be extra productive and create higher apps that run throughout billions of gadgets, together with tablets, foldables, wearables, and extra.

We’ve simply launched extra data on the occasion, together with a snapshot of the 30+ technical Android periods; you’ll be able to check out a few of these periods right here, and begin planning which talks you wish to take a look at. Over the approaching weeks, we’ll be asking you to share your high #AskAndroid questions, to be answered dwell by the staff in the course of the occasion.

The present kicks off at 10 AM PT on October 27 with The Android Present, a 50-minute technical keynote the place you’ll hear all the newest information and updates for Android builders. You may study extra and join updates right here.