#Upgrading android os for android
#Upgrading android os android

While this has been beneficial for establishing default apps, it’s long annoyed me with links - Amazon is especially an issue. Google has finally addressed one of the most longstanding parts of Android, the Open With dialog box. I’d like to see options for Twitch and Discord, but at least Game Dashboard has some solid features from the outset. Whenever you’re in a game, you’ll see a little arrow from which you can access these options. Called Game Dashboard, it features some nice options, including a framerate counter, YouTube Live streaming shortcut, optimization for some games, and shortcuts for screenshots or screen recording.

#Upgrading android os android

Stock Android has a dedicated gaming mode. With Android 12, Google finally got the memo that people play games on their phones. Android 12 review: Game Dashboard, universal device search and more

#Upgrading android os for android

So while the new notification shade design and animations are pretty, just know that there’s a lot going on under the hood to ensure that everything gets grouped and surfaced properly and that notifications are basically immediately responsive (assuming the developer has updated the app for Android 12). Android 12 addresses the notification trampoline delay with a cleaner, more responsive experience, sometimes with significant results. But now, apps can no longer call the startActivity() intent inside a notification item. In my experience, this has been most noticeable with Discord. This has led to the system hanging for a brief moment while the app opens. Apps updated for Android 12 can no longer use what’s called a notification trampoline, which is effectively a stall while the app loads. WIth Android 12, notifications have not only gotten prettier (read: rounder), but smarter as well. Even better, notifications don’t just disappear from your lockscreen when you unlock the phone - this is something that drives me absolutely insane on an iPhone. Simply put, the OS handles them far better than anything Apple has ever done, thanks to Android’s intelligent grouping and easily actionable items. One of Android’s core strengths is notifications. Android 12 review: Making notifications even better You can read more about the Android 12 privacy and security upgrades if you’d like. Our security expert Paul Wagenseil has already broken down the new privacy and security stuff for Android 12 and the Pixel 6 (where the line between the two is a bit muddy). At least Android 12 lets you choose if you want an app to have precise or approximate location access now. The adage of staying careful still holds true - don’t sideload apps you don’t trust and beware apps from the Play Store that ask for permissions you don’t want to grant.

The information stored here never leaves your device.Īll of the new Android 12 privacy and security features won’t compensate for bad habits. It’s the PCC that interests me - it’s essentially a separate partition that Google uses to house the data it needs to train the AI functions like Now Playing and Enhanced auto-rotate. The latter is pretty self-explanatory and I’ll come back to it in a minute. From apps constantly tracking you to the sheer amount of data that Google collects from each device, Android is a far cry from a private system.Īt the core of Android 12 is the Private Compute Core (PCC) and Privacy Dashboard. Privacy has become a big deal in recent years, and Android historically hasn’t had the best reputation in this regard. Android 12 review: Bigger focus on privacy Widgets and the App Library have helped, but they’re a far cry from what Android now offers. While iOS does a lot of things right, it’s hard to make an iPhone feel like yours. Once you get the theming options figured out - notably, picking one of the preset options if you love your wallpaper and hate the colors the system suggests - it’s a wonderful experience that reminded me of why I love Android. After spending months with the new design scheme, I love Material You.