After launching the first Android 12L Developer Preview on the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro just a few days ago, the first Beta built of Android 12L is now available for development. Aside from being able to run Android 12L Beta 1 on the Lenovo tablet and Pixel devices, developers can use Android Studio to emulate their apps on large displays.
The list of improvements and changes has been published on Android Developers Blog most of which focus on optimizing the user experience on devices with large displays, particularly tablets. Aside from bug fixes, optimizations and December security patches, Beta 1 will refine the following for larger screens: notifications, quick settings, lock screen, overview, and home screen. Other areas of the UI will use a two-column layout with on screens above 600dp.
Multitasking gets new features too. There’s now a taskbar that lets you tag and drag app icons of recently used apps directly into split mode. Android aims to have all apps work on split screen regardless of whether the app is resizable. Android 12L will also improve letterboxing on apps running in compatibility mode.
Android’s got more APIs for developers to work towards optimizing apps for large screens with Material Design. Jetpack Compose will handle UI changes across different screen sizes, Window Size Classes for resizing app layouts, and a resizable emulator in Android Studio lets developers try apps on different screen sizes and resolutions.
Most of these changes will be most apparent on larger screens, however Pixel devices can also install the Android 12L Beta build by signing up with your Google account and opting in to the Android Beta Program.
Check out the source link for the full rundown of the changing that arrive with Android 12 Beta 1.
