Android 12 may come with significant user interface changes

It’s been a few weeks for Android fans. The leaks came first. Next, Google officially made its preview available to Android 12 developers, allowing curious people to dig in and see what the company was actually working on. The past two days have brought many discoveries of the changes and features Android 12 will offer, including hints on possible UI changes.

First up: stacked widgets, similar to iOS. Mishaal Rahman identified the “extended smart space” feature, which appears to allow users to scroll through widgets that occupy the same space on the home screen. It’s similar to the Smart Stacks feature introduced in iOS 14, which allows you to “stack” widgets of the same size and scroll between them.

Photo by Mishaal Rahman

XDA Developers was also able to confirm some of the previously disclosed UI changes. He was able to activate a new lock screen and always-on display, with larger clock text stacked with the hours in addition to the minutes. On the lock screen, it floats to the right when notifications arrive. The always-on display also shows a new location for notification icons in the upper left corner of the screen.

It’s unclear what these UI changes will look like in their final form (if they even make it to the client-ready version of Android 12), but we do know that Google is planning to change some aspects of its interface. user, such as the appearance of notifications. . These developer preview tips give an interesting look at what other changes might be in store.