There are now more than three billion active Android devices across the globe, Sameer Samat, VP of Product Management, Android & Google Play announced at the Google I/O 2021 event on Tuesday.
The numbers come in as the tech giant released the first beta of its latest operating system, Android 12. Samat further provided insights into some of the features that will be available in future releases.
“Android 12 includes the biggest design change in Android’s history. We rethought the entire experience, from the colours to the shapes, light and motion,” Samat said in a blog post.
Starting with Android 12 on Pixel devices, the new OS will enable more personalisation for users with the custom colour palette and redesigned widgets.
“Using what we call colour extraction, you choose your wallpaper, and the system automatically determines which colours are dominant, which ones are complementary and which ones just look great. It then applies those colours across the entire OS: the notification shade, the lock screen, the volume controls, new widgets and much more,” Samat explained.
The new OS will also bring about various under the hood improvements including reducing the CPU time needed for core system services by up to 22 per cent and reducing the use of big cores by the system server by up to 15 per cent.
As for the design, the notification shade has been upgraded to be more intuitive and “playful.” Users will also be able to control a majority of the OS directly from Quick Settings.
The Quick Settings has been rebuilt to include Google Pay and Home Controls while allowing for customisation. Users will also be able to access Google Assistant using the power button.
Apart from this, Android 12 will also include new features for privacy and transparency including information around which apps are accessing users’ data, and more controls over which apps can access their data.
“The new Privacy Dashboard offers a single view into your permissions settings as well as what data is being accessed, how often and by which apps. It also lets you easily revoke app permissions right from the dashboard,” Samat explained.
The new OS also includes a new indicator that will appear at the top right of the status bar to let users know when their apps are accessing their microphone or camera. Users can remove app access to these sensors for the entire system including from the two new toggles being added in Quick Settings.
“We’re also giving you more control over how much information you share with apps. With new approximate location permissions, apps can be limited to seeing just your approximate location instead of a precise one,” Samat said.
Google is 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,” said Samat.
Private Computer Core enables features like Live Caption, Now Playing and Smart Reply. All the audio and language processing happens directly on-device, isolated from the network to preserve privacy.