Android 12L Announced with Improvements to Foldables, Tablets, and Chromebook

Oct. 28, 2021

Android 12L Announced For Large Screen Devices

Built with large screen devices in mind,Android 12L introduces new APIs, tools, and guidance to help developers build apps for foldables, tablets, and Chrome OS devices. The announcement comes at a time when the world witnessed nearly 100 million new tablet activations in the last 12 months.

Android 12L brings a visual overhaul on large screen devices across key UI elements including notifications, quick settings, lockscreen, and home screen. According to Google,screens above 600dp now use a two-column layoutin the notification shade, lockscreen, and other system surfaces to better utilize the overall screen area.

Google hasadded a new taskbar on Android 12Lto improve the multitasking experience on large screens. You can also choose to drag and drop from the taskbar to quickly access split-screen mode. It’s worth noting thatAndroid 12L willlet you enter split-screen mode on all apps even if they are not natively resizable.

Other than these key changes, the update improves compatibility mode with visual and stability improvements. This should improve the letterboxing experience for users. In addition, device makers will have the option to customize letterboxing with options to use custom letterbox colors, adjust the position of the inset window, apply custom rounded corners, and more.

Ahead of the stable release in the form of a feature drop early next year, Android 12L will be available as a developer preview forLenovo P12 Pro. Google will open Beta enrollments for Pixel devices later in the preview. If you are a developer, you can try out the Android 12L developer preview system image fromAndroid Studio Canary Chipmunkright now. We are currently working on a step-by-step guide to help you with the installation process, so stay tuned for more information.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.