After a few patches in the past few weeks, Google is rolling out Android 12 Developer Preview 3 (DP3) for Pixel phones today. This should be the last developer quality preview before the Android Beta starts next month.
Android 12 DP3 is an “incremental update for stability and performance”. Developers are advised to “prepare apps for consumer beta” by releasing a “compatible update” in the coming weeks.
This release provides a number of tools for app developers to improve the user experience:
- New animation for starting an app: To “make app launches a more consistent and enjoyable experience,” Google is introducing a standard launch animation, a splash screen with the app icon, and a transition. Developers can customize the home screen background, replace the app icon, control timing, and more.
- New incoming / outgoing / screened call notifications: Intended to improve visibility, scannability and consistency, the new CallStyle template is available for dialers or chat apps with video calling. They come to the top of the notification shade and support multiple standard and custom actions, and can be customized with a large avatar image, text, and button color hints.
- Improved web links: URLs that have not gone through Android App Links or have been manually approved by users are immediately opened by the default web browser instead of the “picker” dialog box.
- Richer haptics: Android 12 introduces support for more expressive effects, such as a low check mark, as current actuators have a wider frequency bandwidth. The goal is to enable developers to create “informational haptic feedback for UI events”. Likewise, game developers have more access to engines in game controllers. Google says the Pixel 4 offers the most complete examples of these upcoming APIs today, as well as partnering with OEMs.
- More flexible backups: Developers can now set different rules (including encryption requirements) for cloud backups and device-to-device transfers. For example, large files can be excluded from the first method, but they can be excluded from the latter.
Other changes include that third-party apps can take full advantage of Quad / Nona Bayer camera sensors and video encoding has been improved. There are optimizations for ML performance, while accelerator drivers can be updated outside of OS updates.
Android Beta Feedback can be accessed via the app drawer or via Quick Settings to report bugs in the Google issue tracker. The Android Beta community is available on Reddit.
Developer Preview system images are available for the Pixel 3 (XL), Pixel 3a (XL), Pixel 4 (XL), Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5, as well as the Android emulator.
Android 12 DP3 (SPP3.210325.010) remains officially “developers only and not intended for everyday or consumer use”. It is available now via manual download or flash, with the public Android Beta coming later. Those on DP2.2 will see an OTA update in the coming hours. If you need help, find our full guide to installing Android 12 here.
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