Last week, we published images depicting important UI changes in Google’s next Android OS version, Android 12. These images come from a document that Google shared with its OEM partners and were probably a model designed to showcase Android 12’s enhanced theme capabilities. In the few photos we got, we just got a look at the UI, the home screen, privacy settings, and the Google Camera app. Although we have assumed that UI changes were the result of the new theme system, it seems that there may be more UI changes in the works.
Early design models showcasing parts of the Android 12 UI.
To begin with, we learned that Google internally dubbed some of the changes to the notification user interface as the beginning of the ‘Road to Material NEXT’. Google’s material design guidelines have evolved significantly since their initial launch. Recently, guidelines have been developed to encourage businesses to accept their own identity in addition to Material Design. Google’s applications, for example, follow the design of the company’s “Material Theme”. While we do not know exactly what changes to the Design Material “NEXT” will bring, it may be important to see what we saw in the Android 12 leak last week. We doubt that Material “NEXT” will be the real name of the new design guidelines; After all, Google never referred to its Material Theme changes as “Material Design 2.0”, although we do know that it referred to it internally. We also do not know whether the Material FOLLOWING changes will include more than just notices. However, we know that Google has more in-store user interface changes for Android 12 in store.
Google, for example, is preparing to customize the layout of the Always on Display and Lock Screen in Android 12.. Some of the changes that have been developed include moving the notification icons for the Always on Display so that it is no longer centered in the new layout, moving the clock view and the smart space to align to the top, moving the bottom logout button and owner information at the bottom of the lock screen instead of in the keyguard view, and add the Pixel’s Now Playing text to the rotating text on the lock screen. There may also be new AOD / lock screen transitions, but we do not know what they will look like. However, these layout and transition changes are unlikely to occur in the Android 12 developer development preview, as Google is preparing to hide these changes with a ‘GX’ (Google Experience?) Overlay.
There are several other changes in the lock screen UI developed for Android 12. It is said that Google is finally adapting the UI of the pattern lock used for the lock screen. They are also working on integrating Android’s Device Controls feature into a lock screen dialog, accessible from an ‘affordability’ button on the bottom of the keyguard.
Left: Android’s lock pattern UI. Right: Android’s Device Control UI.
Google may eventually also enable additional lock screen options for Android 12, a feature that has been developed since Android 10. One of the major changes to the development feature is the addition of a Gradient color for the TypeClock face that is customized based on hard-coded times.
Text lock screen clock
As we saw last week on the leaked images from Android 12, there are major changes in the notification panel. The main changes stem from the new theme-based theme system, with the code “monet”. The specific theme shown in the leaked images may be called ‘Silk’, and may serve as Google’s introduction to the enhanced theme system of Android 12. References to a “Silky Home” appear internally in several places, and it appears that the theme is part of the “SilkFX” program. The new “Silk” style is also compatible with Android for TVs (eg Google TV / Android TV), but we do not know what it will look like on TVs. We learned that Google is also testing UI changes, such as a thicker slider in the notifications panel; reduced horizontal margins, filling and separation height; and possibly a two-column notification screen. We do not yet have images showing any of these changes.
Google is also testing a change in the Quick Settings panel that may be controversial. In Android 12, Google is moving the QS tile labels to the side. Prototyping for this feature began in late December, but the feature appears to be ready earlier this month. When enabled, QS tiles are displayed in only two columns. We are not sure exactly what it will look like, but the changes from Android 11 to the Quick Settings density have already been controversial – any further reduction in the number of Quick Settings tiles shown on a single page will undoubtedly be even more be.
Android 11 has introduced a media player in the notification screen, which reduces how many QS tiles are displayed in the extended state.
Then we see mention of a “letterbox” feature that Google is experimenting with. These ‘mailboxes’ seem to be a new way of placing apps in a frame / window, and they have adjustable rounded corners and an adjustable background color. However, we are not quite sure what it will be used for.
For third-party applications that do not have their own splash screens, Android 12 can generate a standard splash screen window that is light or dark based on the current DayNight theme setting. This could be part of a broader effort to improve the launch of the app.
Finally, to improve Android’s thematic capabilities at a systematic level, Android’s RUN feature gets a major upgrade. Traditionally, RROs are APK packages that need to be installed on the device before it can be activated, but Android 12 can now generate RROs that are not APKs right away. It will be interesting to see how it is used, but we recommend that it provides the ability to generate many custom themes that do not need to be installed as system-level applications. Currently, most theme packages using the RRO / OMS API are installed as static packages in read-only partitions. Generating RRO packages on-the-fly could potentially enable Android 12’s new ‘monet’ voting system.