ISSUE 88 • ANDROID ADVISOR 23it are also set to be simplifiedinto a
singlegranttoo.
Applaunchsplashscreens
Whenyouopenanapp,it’llnowfeature
a splashscreen,betterconcealingthe
loadingprocessandmakingfora more
polishedexperienceeverytimeyou
taponanicon.Whilethere’sa preset
methodforhowsplashscreenswillbe
displays,developershavetheabilityto
customizethem,fromcolour,whether
theyfollowa device’sdarkmodesettings
andtheycanevenincludeananimation.
New call notificationdesign
Dialleror chat apps will now benefitfrom
improvedcall notifications,with custom
UIfeaturesandhighervisibilityover
standardnotifications,sitting at the top
of the notificationspile when they occur.
Fasterweblinkaccess
Userswillbeabletoopenweblinks
fromwithinappswayfaster,withthe
linksopening in their device’s default
browser, rather than having to state a
preference each time.
Compatible media transcoding
Despite an increasing number of devices
encoding video in HEVC (which offers
superior compression and reduced loss
in quality compared to older codecs),
compatibility is still an issue. In spite
of this, Android 12 will automatically
transcode HEVC files into the more
compatibleAVCformatforapps
whereHEVC isn’t yet supported.AVIF image support
As for images, in a similar vein to above,
AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is being
adopted by Android as a new, more
efficient image container that offers
higher quality, more efficient compression
compared to standards like JPEG.Better compatibility
with third-party stores
There are a range of app stores available
besides the Google Play Store. For
example, there’s Samsung’s Galaxy Store
and Huawei’s App Gallery, plus other
variants that often come pre-installed on
some handsets.
For Android 12, Google has stated
that it will open up how these are
available to users, with a spokesperson
telling 9to5Google, “We will be
making changes in Android 12 (next
year’s Android release) to make it even
easier for people to use other app
stores on their devices while being
carefulnottocompromisethesafety
measuresAndroidhasin place.Weare
designingall this now and look forward
to sharing more in the future.”