Google Previews Android 12 With Deeper Customization and iOS 14-Inspired Privacy Protections

[MacRumors]

During its Google I/O developers conference today, Google previewed Android 12, the next version of Android that will ship to millions of Android devices around the world later this year.

Google is mainly targeting customization as the theme for this year's new release and a new design language that it's calling "Material You." Google says this new design language brings a "humanistic approach to design," an approach that "celebrates the tension between design sensibility and personal preference, and does not shy away from emotion."

Google is offering users nearly unlimited customizability for system shapes, colors, and overall feel. Google aims to offer users customization through color extraction, which automatically detects colors that are most dominant in a user's wallpaper and then applies them throughout the system, such as on the lockscreen, widgets, and more.

With Android 12, Google is also introducing more fluid systemwide animations that are aimed at making devices feel "alive with every tap, swipe, and scroll." Google is ensuring, however, that these systemwide animations have minimal impact on battery life and system performance.

Your Android devices are now faster and more responsive with better power efficiency so you can use your device for longer without a charge. This was achieved by some under-the-hood improvements including reducing the CPU time needed for core system services by up to 22% and reducing the use of big cores by the system server by up to 15%.

Beyond design changes, Google introduced new privacy features that take some inspiration from iOS 14, released this past September. One new feature is a microphone and camera indicator, which provides a dot in the top-right hand corner of a device whenever an app is accessing the camera or microphone. Google is also making it easier to disable a specific app's access to the microphone and camera through new toggles in Quick Settings.

Another privacy-centric feature coming with Android 12 is the ability for users to give apps access to either their precise or approximate location. Much like iOS, whenever an app requests access to a user's location, an option to provide "Precise" and "Approximate" locations are given.

Android 12 also includes under-the-hood privacy changes enabled by new AI technologies that help minimize user data collection.

Beyond these new privacy features in Android 12, we’re also building privacy protections directly into the OS. There are more opportunities than ever to use AI to create helpful new features, but these features need to be paired with powerful privacy. That’s why in this release we’re introducing Android Private Compute Core. It allows us to introduce new technologies that are private by design, allowing us to keep your personal information safe, private and local to your phone.

Beyond adopting some iOS 14 privacy features, Google is also taking inspiration in some other areas. Google introduced "Google Digital Car Key," which, much like Apple's Digital Car Key feature available on iOS 13 and ‌iOS 14‌, lets car owners use NFC on their supported Android device to unlock compatible vehicles.

As reported by 9to5Google, Google is also adding support for Apple's Beats headphones to its "Google Fast Pair" process, which aims to make it easy to pair Bluetooth headphones and accessories by simply bringing them near your device. The new feature takes heavy inspiration from Apple users' seamless experience when pairing AirPods, HomePod, and other accessories to their iPhone or iPad.

Android 12 will be under beta testing throughout the summer starting today, and Google says it will be available for a wide range of Android devices later this year.

Article Link: Google Previews Android 12 With Deeper Customization and iOS 14-Inspired Privacy Protections

 

[kenni417]

iOS needs a redesign. long overdue.

 

[LFC2020]

Some of it looks good and some looks putrid, still not on apples level.

 

[dba415]

iOS looks ugly compared to Android. That first picture shows you how outdated and stale iOS looks against the same menus from Android

 

[mikeyy00]

Still a "me-too" OS. How anyone thinks Android is "better" than iOS I'll never understand.

 

[edgonzalez32]

I already know people are going to be jumping on that hate train for giving google **** with privacy attempts.

anything that gets companies to be more transparent is a good thing. It’s ok if Apple isn’t the only company that is trying to be more transparent.

 

[LFC2020]

iOS needs a redesign. long overdue.

Wouldn’t say redesign, a bit more customization and a theme store would be nice.

FFS let us get rid of the home bar and change the camera and flashlight shortcuts on Home Screen.

Not asking for to much ?‍♂️

 

[edgonzalez32]

Still a "me-too" OS. How anyone thinks Android is "better" than iOS I'll never understand.

Because you are getting your needs served by iOS. And it’s somewhat subjective. You don’t need to understand it. Like what you like and let other people like what they like. It’s super easy.

 

[LFC2020]

Still a "me-too" OS. How anyone thinks Android is "better" than iOS I'll never understand.

Carful you might have the mob from the alternative forum calling you a fan boy. ?

 

[Glideslope]

Putting Lipstick on a Pig still leaves you with a Pig.

 

[dba415]

Still a "me-too" OS. How anyone thinks Android is "better" than iOS I'll never understand.

Acting like iOS hasn't copied Android with Notification Center, widgets, and folder support...

 

[LFC2020]

Acting like iOS hasn't copied Android with Notification Center, widgets, and folder support...

Not copied, done it way better and more polished software compared to crap droid.

 

[dabi]

Honestly I think it looks great. It's cool how the colors will be customisable now, they're really embracing one of the bigger strengths of Android over iOS. We'll see if it's really as smooth as they're promising though, Android always gets a bit laggy when too much is going on. Also in the past their Material design concept videos didn't match the final product, so hopefully it won't be the case this time.

 

[dba415]

Not copied, done it way better and more polished software compared to crap droid.

Lol, sure it is.

There is a reason why the top software engineers go to Google over Apple. Google' software is just better, period.

 

[TonyC28]

iOS looks ugly compared to Android. That first picture shows you how outdated and stale iOS looks against the same menus from Android

While I would like to see more customizability in iOS I’m not sure I want see change for the sake of change, especially in menus of all places. A more functional Lock Screen would be cool. And more (I’m not even sure what) with widgets.

 

[LFC2020]

Lol, sure it is.

There is a reason why the top software engineers go to Google over Apple. Google' software is just better, period.

Doesn’t look like it, judging by how poorly fragmented and optimized the apps are on android ?

Don’t get me started on google hardware ?‍♂️?

 

[pnoyblazed]

Love that it’s notch-less

 

[Macintosh IIvx]

Doesn’t look like it, judging by how poorly fragmented and optimized the apps are on android ?

Don’t get me started on google hardware ?‍♂️?

You mean like their brand new phones that won't even see a single major OS upgrade? But somehow Apple has "built in obsolescence" because they generally support their phones for 5-6 years, while Android often doesn't for even a single year. ?

 

[Spock]

Looks good, time for Apple to step up the game when it comes to customizing iOS. I cant even put my icons exactly where I want and iOS widgets are borderline useless. Should have just called them what they are, live icons.

 

[adriantepes]

Beatiful, I miss Android.
Pixel 6 will replace my iPhone 12 Pro and then I have a happy usb-c family (+Macbook M1, iPad Pro).

 

[organic bond]

Not copied, done it way better and more polished software compared to crap droid.

Copied.

 

[organic bond]

Looks good, time for Apple to step up the game when it comes to customizing iOS. I cant even put my icons exactly where I want and iOS widgets are borderline useless. Should have just called them what they are, live icons.

Finally a honest post. Thanks.

 

[dba415]

Doesn’t look like it, judging by how poorly fragmented and optimized the apps are on android ?

Don’t get me started on google hardware ?‍♂️?

I'm talking about 1st party apps/software, not 3rd party.

Google's apps are so much better than Apple's. Look at the Mail app for god sake, literally zero functionality yet Apple dares to make it the default app that the iPhone ships with lmao. The Home app looks like a complete mess, which explains why apple's falling behind on smart home. Other apps haven't even been updated at all, like Weather, or Stocks. This is embarrassing for a huge company like Apple. And of course, who even likes Siri?

 

[TheDailyApple]

It’s really too bad Google doesn’t have a privacy respecting business model. Their products are generally great; the only reason I don’t use them is their data gathering practices. Their cloud services are practically second to none; and they’re only major player who supports Linux natively.

 

[mi7chy]

Caught the later part of Google I/O video stream. Biggest message is 'inclusivity' and granted they're smarter than Apple devices. Maybe pick up the new Pixel 6 series to play around with the new smart features.