, ,

Android 12: New features, best tips and tricks

Posted by

Android 12: Google has announced the release of Android 12, their newest version of the OS, with a redesigned UI that’s more colorful and features the “Material You” design. A significant change in the UI was made in 2014 when the Material design was introduced. As per Google, this new design for “Material You” can accommodate different screen sizes and devices, which means more possibilities for you. There are some new features in Android 12 as well as improvements to some existing ones. We have compiled a list of the top features on the new phone that you may want to enable.

Tips and Tricks

Here are some tips and tricks of Android 12:

Your notification history is always at your fingertips with Android 12

Occasionally do you delete notifications without reading them? Definitely, for some time now, Android has provided users with a way to view their device notification history, but finding it required either knowing where to look or installing an app from a third party. 

The notification shade on Android 12 lets you browse through your history. Tap it to view the last 24 hours’ notifications as well as recently cleared notifications. 

Notification History is not enabled, so you see Manage rather than History. The Notification History switch can be turned on by tapping Manage, then selecting Notification History.

Having someone close to you share with

Several years ago, Google tried out local sharing. The Nearby share feature was only available in Android 11 if the nearby contact is in your contact list. The company’s latest Nearby Share update makes sharing links, photos, or anything else with people in your general vicinity easier than ever before. With the notification shade pulled down, a quick tile lets you quickly access nearby shares.

With Google’s design, you can temporarily select everyone sharing to reduce Apple’s AirDrop risks. Using Android 12, you can choose a nearby share, and a half-sized dialog box appears near the bottom of the screen allowing everyone near you to share. You can change this value with a single tap, while previously, you had to go into the sharing settings to do so.

Smaller phones feel bigger with Android 12

Despite not being a headline feature, the one-handed mode in Android 12 can make a big difference in your everyday life. Having a big display on your phone, such as the Galaxy S21 Ultra, makes this especially true. 

As a result, the new one-handed mode moves your screen’s top half to the bottom for easier access to quick settings or notifications. Simply place your finger on the bottom bar of your phone’s screen and swipe it down to access it. It is easy to duplicate, even if it requires a few tries. 

But before you can do that, you must turn on One-Handed Mode in Settings > System > Gestures by sliding the switch to the On. Below the switch, you will see two options: Pull the screen into reach and Show notifications. To exit the settings app, select the first option.

Pause all apps

If your favorite social network app is constantly buzzing your phone, it can be pretty annoying.

 You can now pause any app on Android 12 using App Pause, which will disable the app for some time until you resume it again. It will result in no notifications and no access to the app.

Despite Android 12’s dedicated gaming mode (yet), it cannot be used.

Android 12 will introduce a dedicated Gaming Mode for users who play many games on their devices. As soon as you begin playing, do not will be automatically enabled on your phone. 

Your notification settings are one of the last places you would even recognize this mode exists if you didn’t sift through them carefully. In my limited testing, I found it didn’t appear in all games. Call of Duty Mobile, however, works. When it’s on, you can perform tasks such as optimizing your device for gaming at the touch of a button or identifying the current frame rate of your device.

By pressing the Power Button, Google Assistant can be accessed.

Google has added another method of calling Google Assistant to Android 12. Users used to summon their phones by long-pressing the home button, swiping from the bottom corners, or squeezing them. The power button now needs to be held down long to activate, just like on newer iPhones. You must enable this feature from the settings menu if it is not enabled by default.

  • Navigate to the settings of your phone
  • Click on System
  • You can find it under Gestures
  • Toggle Hold for Assistant on

The pixel may be the only Android device with the new app layout option in Android 12

You typically see a grid of 4×4, 5×5, or 6×6 apps on your home screen (or similar combinations). There is a new 2×2 app grid option in Android 12 for the Pixel 5 — though it’s a little awkward to use. While I assume this is limited to Pixel phones, I hope other phone makers adopt it, since it’s a great accessibility feature for those with large screen sizes.

Extra Dim

The Android 12 operating system also has a feature that prevents your eyes from being burned by the high brightness of the screen. It is possible to adjust the brightness for extra dim mode even when it is enabled, as this mode reduces the screen brightness significantly. With Quick Toggles, you can change the brightness of your phone’s display separately.

Ads can be turned off

In addition to this, Google built in an opt-out option for ads, now that we know Vanilla Android is ad-free as compared to some Chinese skins. There are also apps, games, and websites that keep track of your use, using your Google Account or your phone ID in order to display ads based on your preferences within the apps or websites. Privacy settings on your phone enable you to disable all of this tracking.

Rotate only when necessary

Ever had your phone suddenly rotate while watching something on it while you were in bed? This mainly occurs when holding your phone in landscape orientation while lying on your side and reading portrait-oriented content. Google can now determine the orientation of your face on your phone using machine learning, even if you turn off auto-rotation.

The phone will not rotate as long as it recognizes an identical orientation of the screen and your face. The auto-rotation screen can be enabled by selecting the auto-rotate screen option in the system settings app and enabling face detection.

You can access the Android Privacy Core in order to prevent any other apps from seeing the camera data obtained for this feature. The data is not also stored after being used for determining if the phone should rotate or not, so there is no need to worry about it. To stop your phone’s automatic rotation based on your head, here’s how to disable it in Android 12.

Connecting adaptively

As a response to consumer complaints about the battery life of the Pixel 4s, Google introduced Apdative Connectivity, automatic switching from 5G to 4G when high-speed operations are not performed. New Pixel phones are also compatible with the beta version of Android 12. Adaptive connectivity kicks in more scenarios, like gaming, Android Auto, etc, but Google does not explain how it works in these scenarios. In general, this mode is used to extend battery life to the greatest possible extent.

Related Articles:

Financial Literacy- Best age to start learning it Updated 2021

Save money: Best tips for budgeting in 2021

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *