It is just a few minutes ago that the news was that Samsung, Lenovo and Microsoft will be the first manufacturers (not Google) to distribute Android 12L for their devices. And they will do so later this year. Andrei Popescu, vice-president of Android software engineering, took care of everything in a post on the Google blog The Keyword.
The first to release the update will be Samsung, Lenovo and Microsoft
For the uninitiated, Android 12L is a new version of Android, intermediate between Android 12 and Android 13, designed to marry better with large screen devices (L stands for the Larger screen ) such as tablets and folding screen devices.
While this is no surprise for Lenovo, since the P12 Pro tablet already boasts a beta version of Android 12L, it is not clear which devices from the other two manufacturers could receive this software release.
As for Microsoft, let’s imagine that one of the candidate devices could be the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 . As for Samsung, however, the question is slightly more thorny, since the South Korean brand has in its product portfolio both tablets (the various Galaxy Tabs) and foldable devices (the Galaxy Z) that could benefit from Android 12L.
The main novelties of Android 12L
Android 12L brings with it various features designed to make the most of the space available on larger screens. A first change concerns the control center and notification interface: the two parts are clearly separated within a two-column layout; in turn, the two columns are differentiated by a different shade of color (the column with notifications has a lighter background than the black of the control center).
Another novelty can be found in the device settings. Also in this case a two-column layout is proposed: the left column will serve as a navigation pane to move within the various sections, without having to go back each time, and on the right side the actual screen is shown of the setting on which the user is navigating (in the example the management of “Background and style” is shown.
A third novelty is represented by the new taskbar (which is very reminiscent of ChromeOS): this allows you to select apps and drag them on the screen in order to run them side by side with the already open app. Using a cursor placed in the divider between the two “windows”, it will be possible to adjust the size of the two apps and decide to make one of them full screen.
Starting later this year, we will be bringing Android 12L to your favorite tablets and foldable with planned updates from Samsung, Lenovo and Microsoft. We will also continue to create more features and functionality to help you get the most out of your larger screen devices in Android 13 and later. ”
It, therefore, seems that, although Android 12L is a version of the operating system dedicated to some devices (some tablets and folding devices), it is laying the foundations for future versions of Android optimized for any type and size of the display.
We will see how and when Samsung, Lenovo and Microsoft will decide to release updates to Android 12L and for which devices. There is a lot of curiosity. Let’s not forget that Google also recently announced the March Feature Drop for its devices, which brought Android 12L to compatible Pixels.