Top features expected for Android 12

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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Top features expected for Android 12

Google is expected to release its next major mobile OS update - Android 12 - in September 2021.

While it's unclear what features will be available in its final form, the company has released two of its three Android developer previews, with the third preview expected to arrive soon.

These previews have provided certain beta testers with an early look at some of the upcoming features.
 
saor said:
Seems the most silly, is probably the most useful.
Click to expand...
Why isnt there a gesture to rotate... You always have to turn on autorotate to go to landscape then forget to switch it off aaaahhh!!!
 
richjdavies said:
Why isnt there a gesture to rotate... You always have to turn on autorotate to go to landscape then forget to switch it off aaaahhh!!!
Click to expand...
Not sure which OEMs have this but on AOSP you can leave auto rotate off, and when you rotate your phone, a little circle appears on the bottom left corner you can tap on to rotate your screen in that direction.
 
Still waiting for full OS upgrades for older phones....

LineageOS does upgrades.
Why can't Google/Xiaomi/Samsung/Huawei/LG/.. do the same.
 
system32 said:
Still waiting for full OS upgrades for older phones....

LineageOS does upgrades.
Why can't Google/Xiaomi/Samsung/Huawei/LG/.. do the same.
Click to expand...
They easily can - especially with full access to proprietary blobs and full kernel trees - but it's not profitable for most OEM's to continue enticing customers with multiple new releases every year while also paying for continued dedicated maintenance, licenses, fees etc. across the board (like say, Apple's more unified approach for long term support) and some of them just plain don't care.

While the likes of Lineage can do this, it also depends heavily on volunteers which may come and go at any point, and as more devices in the future continue to be locked down further, this might sadly not even be a future endeavour anymore.
 
backstreetboy said:
www.gsmarena.com

Samsung commits to 4 years of updates for its 2019 and later smartphones

The new policy includes the Z, S, Note, A, M, XCover and Tab series. Samsung has taken a strong stance on security by offering an extended support of...
www.gsmarena.com www.gsmarena.com

4 years not enough?
Click to expand...
No, 4 years is not enough.
Why can Linux and Windows 10 run 100% fine, current, patched and Samsung/Google can't.

I have 2 PC's at home:
  • 2015Q4 - Core i7-6700k Running Windows 10
  • 2012Q3 - Core i7-3770 Running Arch Linux Kernel 5.11
The Samsung 4 year promise is a joke.
1) It's from date of product announcement, not date of last sale.
2) By the time it arrives in ZA, we already +1 year gone.
3) By the time it's off it's buzz and prices fall to where I can afford, another year.
eg. Tab SM-T850, announced 2016, bought new in 2019, Android 8.

Stop planned obsolescence.
 
system32 said:
Still waiting for full OS upgrades for older phones....

LineageOS does upgrades.
Why can't Google/Xiaomi/Samsung/Huawei/LG/.. do the same.
Click to expand...
because who told you they WANT you to keep your old phone going?
copying apple more and more, as there is definitely more money to be made.
 
eg2505 said:
because who told you they WANT you to keep your old phone going?
copying apple more and more, as there is definitely more money to be made.
Click to expand...

Latest iOS supports phones as old as iPhone 6s, which is almost 6 years old by now. So how exactly are they copying Apple?
 
system32 said:
No, 4 years is not enough.
Why can Linux and Windows 10 run 100% fine, current, patched and Samsung/Google can't.

I have 2 PC's at home:
  • 2015Q4 - Core i7-6700k Running Windows 10
  • 2012Q3 - Core i7-3770 Running Arch Linux Kernel 5.11
The Samsung 4 year promise is a joke.
1) It's from date of product announcement, not date of last sale.
2) By the time it arrives in ZA, we already +1 year gone.
3) By the time it's off it's buzz and prices fall to where I can afford, another year.
eg. Tab SM-T850, announced 2016, bought new in 2019, Android 8.

Stop planned obsolescence.
Click to expand...
Yes and no.

ARM doesn't have standards like x86 does, so every iteration is different and wildly inconsistent. This leads to the introduction of specific proprietary code that allows Android *only* to work with them, on top of manufacturer blobs from Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek etc.

These cannot and most of the time do not get pushed upstream to the public, and this disallows any kind of third party tinkering to work with them in the same way desktops do, and as I mentioned earlier, supporting their own mess costs time and money they simply do not want to invest in, and are constantly told that security through obscurity is a legitimate form of practice in this case to substantiate further locking down.

Luckily, we do have some efforts from Pine, f(x)tec and Purism trying to push a more consolidated experience to run whatever you desire but at the cost of severely outdated specifications.

We can only hope that future generations of chips from RISC-V and the likes with their open source and matted nature turn over a new generation of killing planned obsolescence on top of the Right to Repair.
I 100% agree with you on that, but it's only barking up the wrong tree.

Sadly, the masses have favoured yearly contracts with promotions to discounted upgrades overseas so a lot of people don't even see this as an issue, just better toys.
 
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