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00:00Hey, what's up, MKBHD here, and it is that time of year where we've got a new version
00:07of Android and all the fun stuff that comes with it.
00:09Now, we usually have a name for the version as well.
00:12It's usually named after a sweet, like marshmallow or KitKat or Oreo, jelly beans, something
00:17like that.
00:18I guess that got a little too crazy because now we're just on straight numbers.
00:21So Android 12, but this feels like easily the biggest Android redesign to happen since
00:29maybe the beginning.
00:30I feel like I've seen a lot of visual changes to Android over the years, but this is truly
00:34the biggest one because visually everything is different, literally everything.
00:38I feel like I was actually kind of surprised when I saw all these big changes because Android's
00:42been maturing and doing little refinements and subtle tweaks over the years.
00:47But I'm on beta two of Android 12 here on this Pixel 5 and both under the hood and on
00:52the surface, there's a lot to take in.
00:53So I'm going to go through my top five biggest changes slash biggest new features in order
00:59of importance.
01:00So of course, the timeline for when you get this update is going to depend on what phone
01:03you have.
01:04Some of you with Pixels will get this update earlier than others, but when you do finally
01:08get Android 12, you should be prepared.
01:10You should know what to expect.
01:12So this video is for you.
01:18Okay, so number five, this is a more of a backend thing actually, but Android is just
01:25going to be getting even smoother and faster.
01:29And I've talked about this in the past.
01:30You want to see them get as fast and smooth as possible, close the gap with iOS.
01:34And so I always welcome this stuff.
01:36So in Android 12, Google streamlined the CPU time for core system services by 22%.
01:41That's a pretty big jump.
01:42That means no matter what hardware you're on, whether you have an older chip or a Snapdragon
01:46888, as long as it's running Android 12, things should feel a bit smoother, less jitter, less
01:52jank and stutter.
01:53Again, this is beta two on my Pixel, but I'm already liking a lot of the new animations
01:57and the overall smoothness of things when flipping through the UI.
02:00And you know, there's no limit to how much optimization is a good thing.
02:03But with this software combined with the rumor sort of floating around that Google may be
02:07designing their own Silicon for the first time on this next Pixel, that combined could
02:13be pretty sweet.
02:15As far as overall experience, I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but just want
02:19to give that a shout out.
02:20Now, number four, these I think might fly under the radar a little bit because not everybody
02:24uses these, but widgets, there are new widgets.
02:28So there's a new widget selector and there's a new set of all completely redesigned widgets
02:33in Android 12.
02:34Now, this is the beta two right now.
02:36So I just have the new widget picker, but I love this just mainly because for every
02:40app that has any widgets, it now will show you in line every single widget that that
02:45app gives you, how it'll look before you even add it to the home screen.
02:48So there's no guessing when you start adding things.
02:51And that's very intuitive.
02:52Again, you probably only have to set up your widgets occasionally, maybe once in a while,
02:57but that's great.
02:58Now the newly redesigned widgets themselves aren't in this software yet, but I have some
03:02screen recordings straight from Google themselves that really show what some of these new widgets
03:06are about.
03:07They are really, really different.
03:10They're really different.
03:11This new clock is a very different look.
03:13Like it's a little more abstract with the date rotating around instead of a second hand.
03:19It's a lot.
03:20It's definitely a lot.
03:21And so theoretically, Google is going to finish updating all of their stock app widgets so
03:24that developers can see what they can do with this new functionality and to just get the
03:28whole look together.
03:29So far, I'm excited just to see what it looks like when it all comes together.
03:33So then number three, privacy.
03:37Now, you might not think of Google and privacy in the same sentence very often, but seriously,
03:42there is a commendable amount of privacy controls here.
03:46You have a lot more control in your hands.
03:47And I think that's going to be the key word, the control.
03:49So first of all, they added these indicators to the top corner for when your camera or
03:53microphone are being accessed by an app.
03:57They're both green and they're in the top right corner.
03:59This is something iOS has been doing for a while that we were asking for, although it
04:02might've been cool if there were different colors like an iOS, but it's a little bigger
04:06and you get a little icon.
04:08The point is now you immediately know if an app is using your camera or mic.
04:12And if you want to change that access, it's easy.
04:14You swipe down from the top and tap that indicator to go straight into the permissions of whatever
04:19app just triggered it, and then you can take away that access.
04:22Then you also have a couple optional quick setting buttons you can add.
04:25They're not there by default, but if you want to add them, you can have a quick setting
04:28toggle to immediately turn off camera access or microphone access to everything.
04:33So if you're about to do something or say something, for some reason, you don't want
04:37any apps on your phone to have that access to the camera or mic.
04:40You just flip the switch and it turns it off.
04:42And so no app will get access until you enable that again.
04:45So all that's nice for peace of mind.
04:46That's another level above and beyond what we see on the iPhone.
04:50So that's cool.
04:51Then if all of that wasn't enough, there's also now a privacy dashboard inside the settings.
04:55And that privacy dashboard will literally show you for your location or camera or microphone
05:01or anything else, an actual timeline laid out of every single app that has access that
05:07sensor or that information and when it did it.
05:10So that'll make it much easier to see exactly what's going on.
05:12If there's any rogue apps doing crazy things in the background, killing your battery, pinging
05:17your location all the time, you better believe it'll show up here and you can just get rid
05:21of it straight away.
05:22And then lastly, when apps ask for your location for the first time, there's a new toggle that
05:26will let you select giving them your precise location or just giving them your approximate
05:32location, just the neighborhood you're in.
05:35That's pretty useful.
05:36So for maps, for example, I'm of course going to give it my precise location because I want
05:40to use it for navigation and it just needs to know where I am.
05:43But hey, for any other apps that don't need to know all that, maybe my weather app or
05:47a news app, I still want local news and local weather, but I can choose approximate location
05:52so they can't do any weird ad tracking with my exact latitude and longitude.
05:57That's pretty sweet.
05:58Okay.
05:59So number two, these new quick settings.
06:01So it's obviously aesthetically very different.
06:04It might even be the most aesthetically like defining feature of Android 12, like every
06:09preview you see definitely shows this stuff.
06:12But there's also some new functionality too.
06:14So you pull down from the top and you've got these huge toggles that are separated from
06:18the notifications area.
06:20This to me is interesting because I remember so much previous Google talk about getting
06:24rid of wasted space and minimizing the blank empty space.
06:28But now there's this big clear separation here and actually think it's nice.
06:32Then when you pull down again, you get this huge brightness slider at the very top and
06:36these gigantic tiles for whenever you want a quick setting.
06:40It's of course still customizable like I showed, so you can add or remove toggles, but there's
06:45also a setting shortcut and a power menu shortcut underneath it all.
06:50The internet selector UI is a little bit different too.
06:52So when you have a SIM card in your phone, it's going to show you both wifi networks
06:56and your cell connection in one place, which is nice.
06:59I think it consolidates two buttons into one.
07:01And of course you also still have ongoing notifications that show up at the top too.
07:05Like if you're playing music or something that's unchanged, but it's going to be at
07:08the top with the quick settings instead of mixed in with the rest of the notifications.
07:15I think I like this new look.
07:16It's definitely like, it's very different and it takes some getting used to, but the
07:20toggles being way bigger, obviously take up more space, but also they're huge touch targets
07:25now.
07:26They're hard to miss.
07:27You get the mic access and the camera access tiles and the screen recording tile is great.
07:31And so that brings us to number one, which is just got to be the whole new look, the
07:36new aesthetic material, you just a whole new design here.
07:40So if you don't remember material design is a sort of guideline that Google has been
07:44using since 2014 to help developers make their apps look like they were made for Android.
07:50So that they fit into the look material you with this new aesthetic is a sort of an evolution
07:54of that.
07:55That's a bit more personal as you can tell by the name.
07:57So obviously things look very different.
07:59There's the big buttons we talked about, the big volume control slider, big brightness
08:04slider at the top, huge quick settings toggles, and even all the texts through all the menus
08:09and settings is also now larger.
08:11There's a new power button menu, which puts these three huge buttons in a triangle for
08:16some reason.
08:17And there's also a new charging animation.
08:18When you plug in your phone sort of sweeps up from the bottom from the charge port.
08:23And there's even more bouncy and friendly looking animations around all this bigger
08:26text.
08:27And this is still in an early beta, like I said, so I'm sure stuff will keep getting
08:30added over time.
08:31Like the screen on and off animation that they showed on stage at IO where it would
08:34like emanate out of the power button, but probably the most noteworthy thing here for
08:38Material You is the color and style selections that you can make to match it to basically
08:46a theme that you make for your device.
08:48So it's not exactly a whole theme engine, but now in settings, there's a wallpaper and
08:52style section where you can change your wallpaper.
08:55You can change the grid size, you can change the style and accent colors of your buttons
09:00and your icon shapes and all of that.
09:03And then Material You will take the color of your wallpaper and choose a lock screen
09:08clock and quick settings accent colors to match what it thinks will look good with that
09:15wallpaper.
09:16So with this yellow wallpaper, for example, as soon as you set it, it gave me this dark
09:20yellow clock for contrast.
09:22And it seems like it typically sticks with lighter kind of pastelly versions of the primary
09:27color or complimentary color of the wallpaper.
09:30So since it's a totally yellow wallpaper, I got yellow quick settings.
09:34But when I switched to this mostly blue wallpaper, you can see everything adjust here.
09:37And it's been pretty smart about contrast and everything so far to keep things readable.
09:42But yeah, this is another feature that's going to continue to evolve into the final version
09:46of Android 12 when it comes out later this year.
09:49But it's already a pretty cool touch, just making the whole device feel like one cohesive
09:53experience.
09:54Change your wallpaper, change your life.
09:55That's what I always say.
09:57Now this material use stuff is just on Pixel for now, something to keep in mind.
10:02And this whole Android 12 experience, it's just the way Google is making it on their
10:07phone, which is the Pixel.
10:08So when you get it on your phone, if it's a OnePlus, if it's a different Samsung look,
10:12it might have a different aesthetic to it, but you'll see a lot of the same features
10:15and general themes.
10:16But yeah, let me know what you think.
10:17Are you a fan of this new change?
10:20It's a pretty big one.
10:21I feel like it takes some getting used to.
10:23When I saw it on video, I wasn't as convinced I would like it.
10:27But after using, I've gotten used to it now with a day of the beta, and I feel like I'll
10:31continue to like it more and more as I use it.
10:33But yeah, that's it.
10:35Also, I've done an interview with Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
10:38So if you haven't watched that video already, I'll link it below the like button.
10:41We also did a deep dive on all this material use stuff on episode 65 of the Waveform Podcast,
10:48which is now on YouTube.
10:49So I'll leave a link to the Waveform Podcast YouTube channel below as well.
10:53And big shout out to the sponsor of this video, ExpressVPN.
10:56Because if you care about the privacy features that I just showed you in the latest version
11:00of Android, well, then you'll probably also want a VPN.
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12:06Either way, that's been it.
12:08Thanks for watching.
12:09Catch you guys in the next one.
12:11Peace.
12:12Peace.