[General Topics] XDARoni:
Google I/O is an annual developer keynote where many breakthrough technologies are announced. This event is always met with some hype and often a few leaks that can give us an idea of what to expect. This is where developers will get a first look at the newest Android build, followed by a beta that can be downloaded to specific devices. This year, Google is showing us the new features in Android 12. While the focus on the newest Android update takes up the majority of the keynote, there are still many more Announcements to cover.

Don't miss these great Google I/O articles from the XDA News team (and

check out our amazing recap here

):

Google FINALLY Shows Pending App Installs on the Android home screen​

Android 12 Beta 1 Hands-on: A RADICAL Redesign comes to Android​

Android 12 Generates AMAZING Themes from your Wallpaper​

It's About Time! Google Overhauls Widgets in Android 12​

Get Android 12 Beta for Google Pixel and other Android devices - RIGHT NOW​

Android 12’s privacy controls Have TONS of NEW FEATURES​

Android 12​

Right before the event began, Google released the first beta build for Android 12. This is one of the most significant updates that Android has seen. If you own a compatible Pixel phone, you'll be able to experience the beta right away. The beta can be installed as an OTA update, but if you prefer to manually install it, you can download the update from the list below.

Google Pixels

Device	OTA	Factory Image
Google Pixel 3	Download Link	Download Link
Google Pixel 3 XL	Download Link	Download Link
Google Pixel 3a	Download Link	Download Link
Google Pixel 3a XL	Download Link	Download Link
Google Pixel 4	Download Link	Download Link
Google Pixel 4 XL	Download Link	Download Link
Google Pixel 4a	Download Link	Download Link
Google Pixel 4a 5G	Download Link	Download Link
Google Pixel 5	Download Link	Download Link

GSI Downloads

[The Android 12 Beta GSI download links and the installation guide can be found here.]

Architecture	GSI Package
x86+GMS	Download Link
ARM64+GMS	Download Link
x86_64	Download Link
ARM64	Download Link

Once you are ready to install the Android 12 beta 1, you can use the Android Flash Tool. The web-based installer comes with a handy GUI-based wizard that greatly simplifies the flashing process. Instead of focusing on the changes that were introduced in Android 12 Beta 1, Google released a more detailed press release that talks about the changes that will be seen in the next version of the OS.

New Features

The new Color Extraction feature will pull colors from your current wallpaper and implement them throughout the system, as a new theme. It uses a clustering algorithm to determine which shades are dominant and which are less dominant. This design, along with the rest of the new “Material You” changes, are coming to Google Pixel phones first in the fall.

Then there’s dynamic lighting, a feature wherein your lockscreen expands from darkness based on where you press the power button or unlock the phone. One feature we also spotted is that, on the lock screen, there’s a new button for Quick Wallet Access (Google Pay cards). Furthermore, the Quick Settings space has redesigned to include Google Pay and Home controls.

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Another strong focus is the new privacy features. First, a new privacy dashboard to see a timeline of apps using a particular permission has been added. Furthermore, this privacy dashboard also gives easy access to manage that permission. Next, there are now privacy indicators in the top right to see when an app is using the camera or microphone. New Quick Settings toggles to disable camera or microphone access have been added. Finally, all machine learning processing (for features like smart reply, Now Playing, etc.) happens on-device under a new Private Compute Core software partition.

Google has reworked the Widgets API to enhance the user experience across different platforms, Android skins, and launchers. We see a consistent spread of the Google Sans font, flat icons, and cohesive color palettes, all of which together give widgets a more modern look. Widgets in Android 12 get new dynamic controls allowing you to interact with checkboxes, radio buttons, and switches without entering an app. The widget picker will now also offer responsive previews for widgets of different sizes.

Material You​

Android's look is getting a complete redesign. These new design standards are called Material You. The colors of your Android theme can now be generated by your wallpaper. Android will pull a color pallet based on your own custom wallpaper, and apply it to different aspects of your phone. This gives a consistent and new look to your device, every time you change your wallpaper. As per the keynote at Google I/O 2021, the colors will apply uniformly across elements such as the lockscreen, quick settings, notifications panel, and even the newly-added adaptive widgets.

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Material You will arrive as part of Android 12, and Google says it will share more details in the coming weeks. The design shift is described as a “multiyear journey,” so much like the original rollouts of Material Design and Google’s Material Theme (also known as ‘Material Design 2.0’), it will likely be a while before all of Google’s apps are migrated to the new style.

WearOS News​

Google has put effort into bringing some big updates to Wear OS. This update comes as a collaboration between Google and Samsung, in an attempt to revamp the OS. This keynote was the first time we got to see many of these new features in action.

Google transitioned from Google Play Music to YouTube Music last year, and one of the several issues users faced due to this transition was the lack of a Wear OS app for Google’s new music streaming service. Google has now confirmed that it will release a YouTube Music app for Wear OS later this year. The app will come with features like smart downloads that will let users download music to their watches for offline listening while they’re on the go.

Furthermore, Google announced that it’s making it easier for developers to build new Wear OS apps and Tiles with a couple of new tools. These include a new Tiles API and a watch face design editor built by Samsung. Apps from developers like Strava, Adidas Running, Bitmoji, and more will also make their way to the platform later this year.

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Smart Canvas​

One of the first announcements of the event was a new service called Smart Canvas. This is a team collaboration service that integrates Google Meet and Docs. Think of it as a replacement for services like Slack or Asana. Google showed an example of a team tracking an advertising campaign from beginning to end. The process first starts like an idea board, which evolves as the project goes on. You can assign and track tasks for specific team members.

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Google Meet is being integrated into Docs, as a part of Smart Canvas. Now when you're working on a document with the team, you can start a call from within your doc. This is an easy way to collaborate with your team while tackling one project. Features similar to this are being added that have the goal of unifying all of Google's different work/office tools.

Android Augmented Reality API​

ARCore for Android will be receiving some important upgrades, according to the I/O keynote. The company's augmented reality platform powers more than 850 million Android smartphones worldwide. ARCore relies on your phone’s existing hardware and sensors to collect data on depth, motion tracking, and light estimation to help developers build interactive AR experiences. This API is essential for developers to continue to create advanced AR apps for the Android platform.

Now Google introduces the raw Depth API, which builds upon the Depth API to provide more detailed representations of surrounding objects by generating raw depth maps with corresponding confidence images. While the Depth API focused on generating smoothed depth maps with depth estimates for all pixels, the Raw Depth API aims to capture more realistic depth maps with confidence images providing a per-pixel depth estimate.

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Another area of improvement is the hit-test which now uses depth maps instead of planes to provide more hit-test results even on non-planar and low-texture floors. TeamViewer’s LifeAR app has utilized the depth hit-test to integrate AR capabilities into video calls.

Continue to follow XDA's coverage of the 2021 Google I/O and the first beta build of Android 12.