We’ve ranked all of the best new features that have been added to Google Pixel devices as part of the Android 12 Developer Beta 5.
The long road to a stable Android 12 release is punctuated by the preview phase and the very latest is Beta 5. An already stacked OS is getting yet more tweaks and refinements before it’s ready for the public, and so we’ve been delving into Android 12 Beta 5 to find all the new features and functions. You have had it drummed in that Android 12 is going to provide one of the biggest updates to the mobile platform for years. It’s drastically different-looking than you’re probably used to. You might hate it or you might love it, there doesn’t seem to be consensus either way at this stage, but new things often warrant some level of critique. Because of that and the fact that we’re now in September, it feels very much like this has been the longest preview phase to date, and releases have been ridiculously thick and fast. Based upon previous years, we kind of expected Android 12 to be here already, and we now have Beta 5 to get to grips with. If you have already enrolled, you should soon receive an OTA update that contains the latest September 2021 security patch, plus all of the new UI and system-level tweaks coming with this latest update. If you haven’t already tried the Android 12 Beta and want to sign up, we have a short little guide to help you get enrolled, but this process is very quick and easy. Basically, head to the Android 12 Beta sign-up page, and you can opt-in – or out – to try the latest pre-release OS build for yourself. That is, provided you have a Pixel 3/3 XL or a newer Made by Google phone. Subscribe to 9to5Google on YouTube for more videos After being spotted in progress with previous releases, the universal device search feature is now fully live and working in Android 12 Beta 5 within the Pixel Launcher app drawer. When swiping up into the app drawer while using the default Pixel Launcher, you can use the top search bar widget to locally search for apps, contacts, and more with ease. There’s also the option to “Search on Google” should you want more than just local results. You’re also able to set the keyboard to always show when swiping up into the app drawer. The “Preferences” panel allows for finer controls over what will appear in your device searches. Hinted at in the announcement of Material You back at I/O 2021, the highly anticipated Google Clock widgets have arrived with Android 12 Beta 5. There are four widgets in total; Analog, Digital, Stack, and World. The last one will show time zones outside of your home region if you’ve added them within the Google Clock app. The theme will automatically change slightly between the two widgets, too. As with just about everything in Android 12, all the colors are a key component. But the colors appear to be pulled directly from your device wallpaper in a more direct sense, rather than the basic color scheme determined by your system theme. With Android 12 Beta 5, Google Clock is yet another app that has picked up a fairly substantial Material You update and UI overhaul.
