Google just announced the preview of Android 12L, but the L behind the number does not mean Lite in functionality, but a derivative version that performs better on the Large screen. Whether it is a tablet, a foldable device, or a Chrome OS laptop, Android 12L can provide an improved user interface (UI) for any device with a layout exceeding 600 dB.
At present, Android 12L has provided a preview experience to developers who like early adopters, supplemented by the supporting Android 12L emulator and Android Studio integrated development environment support. At the same time, Android 12L is also suitable for mobile platforms, and Google claims that it will not confuse anyone.
However, in terms of new features, Android 12L is still mainly focused on other types of devices. It should be pointed out that since Google only refers to Android 12L as a feature drop/update” in the announcement, don’t expect it to have a huge difference in an experience like Apple’s iOS/iPad OS.
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On the contrary, Android 12L is mainly aimed at the improvement of large-screen devices, introducing additional multi-tasking tools/optimized user interface. By default, Android 12L is expected to make the user experience on these devices better. Specifically, this means that Google has improved the look and feel of Android 12L’s notifications, quick settings, lock screen, overview, and home screen, supplemented by a large number of optimizations at the system application level.
One of the most interesting is the newly introduced multitasking-the new taskbar is hard not to remind people of iPadOS. Considering that Android already supports split-screen mode on tablets, Android 12L makes it easier to find. You only need to drag and drop the icon from the taskbar to the screen to invoke the split-screen function. This also means that every application on Android now supports a split-screen mode-of course, the premise is that the developer has opted in advance.
According to the plan, Android 12L will arrive in early 2022 to catch up with the release window of the next wave of Android 12 tablets/foldable devices. In other words, we can expect to hear more during the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2022) in February. At the same time, Google today also announced new features in OS / Play so that developers can better support related devices.
These include updates to the Jetpack Compose and Material Design design guidelines for large-screen devices, which are designed to make it easier to build applications for these machines and to ensure that they can better adapt to various screen orientations and sizes.
And Android Studio got an adjustable size emulator to help developers test their applications on a wider range of screen sizes. Supplemented by a new visual linting tool, used to display UI warnings and suggestions when there is a layout problem.
As for Google Play, the company will now check apps according to its quality guidelines for large-screen apps and will take this factor into consideration in search rankings. For apps that lack large-screen optimization, Google will start to alert users on the app list page of the Play Store.