Android 12 has a hidden gaming toolbar that floats on your screen



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It could be part of the game mode we’ve heard about

This year’s Android 12 update is shaping up to be Google’s biggest release in years, judging by all the cool new features we find. Earlier today, XDA-recognized developer and site friend Quinny899 gave us our first look at Android 12’s hidden chat widget, but that’s not the only feature it has enabled. Through some reverse engineering, he managed to get Google’s hidden gaming dashboard feature to work. It’s currently extremely simple and only has a floating toolbar with two non-working buttons, but this is our first look at another new Android 12 feature.

As you can see in the screenshot below, two icons are superimposed at the top of the screen: a recording icon and a controller icon.

Android 12 hidden and developing game toolbar. Credits: Kieron Quinn / Quinny899.

According to the gaming dashboard code contained in Android 12’s SystemUI, the record button simply starts a screen recording session. This will come in handy when you want to record your screen without interrupting the game by pulling down the Quick Settings panel. As for the button with the controller icon, we don’t know what it will do because it doesn’t work and there isn’t any obvious functionality related to it in the code.

Gaming Dashboard classes are part of the com.google.android.systemui namespace rather than com.android.systemui, which suggests that this feature may be exclusive to Pixel. However, many OEMs already have their own game mode features, and nothing in this version stands out just yet. Prior to the removal of the first developer preview, we learned that Google is working on a game mode for Android 12. We don’t know if this new game dashboard and the game mode we heard about are the same or if the first is a feature built on the new GameManager service. We’ll likely learn more about that in the upcoming Android 12 developer previews.

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