Android 12 update for Google Pixel phones starts rolling out: how to download

Android 12 has begun rolling out to Pixel phones, Google announced Tuesday at its Pixel Fall Launch event. The latest Android version was first released in developer preview in February and was featured at Google’s I/O developer conference in May. Earlier this month, Google also made Android 12 source code available for the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Android 12 brings a new design language called Material You, which aims to improve personalization on Android devices. There are also new privacy options, including the ability to let users share their approximate location with third-party apps.

Android 12 Features

One of the biggest changes Android 12 brings to your Pixel phone is the Material You design language. It aims to enhance personalization on the device by letting users choose a custom color palette and new widgets depending on their tastes and preferences. The new Android version also includes smooth movements and animations for a fresh user experience.

Android 12 provides users with an enhanced personalized experience
Photo credits: Google

It is also claimed that Android 12 optimizes the overall user experience with better power efficiency. It also includes underlying improvements to reduce CPU time required for core system services by up to 22 percent and reduce system server utilization of large cores by up to 15 percent. This makes for a faster and more responsive user experience.

Google has also added a list of new privacy-focused changes in Android 12 to provide better privacy controls. There is a new privacy dashboard with detailed permission settings and what data is used by which app. There is also an option to grant approximate location permissions instead of giving exact location data to third party apps. A new indicator will also appear in the top right corner of the screen when installed apps access the built-in microphone or camera. This all sounds similar to the privacy controls Apple introduced in previous iOS releases.

Android 12 is also claimed to deliver faster machine learning experiences and more responsive notifications by reducing system-level latency. There is also support for AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) to improve image quality for the same file size compared to older image formats, including JPEG. In addition, Android 12 comes with a compatible media transcoding feature to improve the quality and compression of videos.

How to get Android 12 update on Google Pixel devices

Android 12 is rolling out to a list of Google Pixel phones that includes the Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 3A, Pixel 3A XL, Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 4A, Pixel 4A 5G, and Pixel 5. update reaches your eligible Pixel phone, you’ll be notified to download it. You can also manually check for the update by going to . to go System > Advanced > System update.

Android 12 is now live for eligible Google Pixel phones

In addition to the previous Pixel phones, Android 12 will be available in the near future for devices from manufacturers such as Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Tecno, Vivo and Xiaomi. The latest Android version is also pre-installed on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones.