Android 12 Beta 3 signifies a milestone as the stable OS builds inch ever closer to a full launch later this year. We’ve already done a deeper dive into the “top” new features and functions, but we’ve unpacked a few more that you might have missed but should definitely still know.
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While Android 12 stability is improving with every release, it’s still in beta, and some users last night received a reminder of that status via an absolute slew of system “Foreground Service BG-Launch Restricted” notifications that were generated by Gboard.
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Visually, the biggest change coming with Android 12 is the ability for the operating system to change its theme based on your wallpaper. That’s an option that will be available to third-party apps, too, and well ahead of Android 12’s final release, a couple of apps are already adding support for Material You.
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Following the launch on Wednesday, Google has opened the customary Android 12 Beta 3 survey for Pixel owners.
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Ahead of World Emoji Day tomorrow, Google is sharing new designs for 992 emoji that it has revamped with a focus on “making them more universal, accessible, and authentic.” The company also provided a timeline for when they will be rolling out to its various platforms.
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Android 12 has brought a ton of new changes to smartphones, as we’ve detailed over the past few months. However, Android TV and Google TV are known for providing most updates independent of system versions. In Android TV 12 Beta 3, though, there are a few minor tweaks to Google TV and Android. Here’s what we’ve found.
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Back in Android 12 Beta 2, the Pixel 4 was shown a little love with a new animation signifying that your device has been unlocked. Not to be left out, devices with a fingerprint scanner have now received a new animation when unlocking in Android 12 Beta 3.
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Android 12 brings a lot of visual changes with it, and now the out-of-box-experience is being updated to match. With Android 12 Beta 3, Google is giving a fresh coat of paint to the setup experience on Pixel phones.
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The stable Android 12 release has inched ever closer, with Android 12 Beta 3 dropping just a month after the second build. Following our other deep dives, we’ve been spending time with Android 12 Beta 3 to find the best new features and changes that you can try right now.
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Following the first beta, Android 12 users immediately complained about how the ripple effect looked like a graphical bug. Google responded and promised updates, with Beta 3 today delivering a more subtle sparkle.
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While Android 12 builds have been available for Android TV for months now, there have been no visible changes to the platform to date. Today, though, Google has finally detailed what’s new in Android TV 12, most notably delivering long-overdue support for 4K UI rendering.
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Privacy is a big focus of Android 12, and one of the ways that Google is addressing it is with better notification of sensor usage. While it’s not live quite yet, we’ve discovered that Android 12 is working on a more obvious location indicator that matches what’s been changed with the camera and microphone.
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Google has put more and more emphasis on making the “Recents” view in Android more useful in the past few years, and in Android 12, we’re getting one of the best pitches for that yet. With Android 12 Beta 3, Google Chrome is adding a handy link sharing button to the Recents multitasking menu.
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With the removal of the awesome Active Edge in recent Pixel devices, the corner swipe activation gesture was seen as the replacement. In Android 12 Beta 3, you’re now able to completely deactivate the Assistant corner swipe.
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The third beta to Android 12 makes some updates to the Pixel Launcher homescreen for Google’s own phones, including renaming “At A Glance” to “Live Space” and adding more splashes of color.
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One of the more frustrating elements of Android 12 Beta 2 was the removal of the ability to toggle Wi-Fi on or off quickly within the introduction of the “Internet” notification button. Android 12 Beta 3 is sort of fixing that problem with a “turn off Wi-Fi” button as part of the Internet pop-up.
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You’ll often see a neat feature show up in third-party skins before they arrive in native Android, but the popular feature that is Scrolling Screenshots feels like it has taken an eternity to arrive. Today, though, Scrolling Screenshots are finally a part of native Android and, in turn, on Pixels, but the functionality differs a bit compared to what you’ll see on a Samsung device.
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The third beta for Android 12 has just arrived and, with it, a brand new wallpaper picker that has better support for the new Material You theming language, including color options and also themed icons.
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The previous beta at the start of June continued rolling out many of the mobile operating system’s upcoming consumer-facing capabilities and changes. Over the coming hours, we will dive into today’s Android 12 Beta 3 release to chronicle all the new features.
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Compared to last year, Android 12 is pushing back the release candidate build by one version with Beta 3 rolling out today as another “incremental Beta-quality release.”
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On the first day of this year’s Games Developer Conference, Google introduced a handful of Android 12-specific features to improve the gameplay experience, including a game dashboard and the ability to get into titles much faster.
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Beta 2.1 of Android 12 rolled out this morning with a handful of much-needed bug fixes. However, there’s a slight regression to Android 12’s new Internet panel with users unable to quickly disconnect from Wi-Fi.
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The latest Android 12 Beta from the start of this month is widely considered to have regressed on stability. As such, Google is releasing Android 12 Beta 2.1 today after going without patches for DP3 and Beta 1.
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Starting on Android 12, Google is rolling out the next big redesign of Discover. This visual revamp of the feed was first introduced on iOS and is now coming to Android.
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