ISSUE 88 • ANDROID ADVISOR 19Allofthiswillbesmootherand
fastertoo,thankstounder-the-hood
improvementsthathavereducedthe
CPUtimeneededforcoresystem
servicesbyupto 22 percent,and
reducedthesystemserver’suseof
bigcoresbyupto 15 percent.
Newprivacyfeatures
Beyondthedesign,thebiggestsetof
changestoAndroid 12 areallabout
privacyandsecurity,mostofwhich
arrivedin thesecondpublicbeta.
Firstupis a newPrivacyDashboard,
whichis intendedtobea one-stop-
shopforallofyourdataprivacy;letting
youknowwhatdatawasaccessed,
when,andbywhichapps– withthe
optiontorevokeapppermissions
rightthere and then too.
New microphone and camera icons
indicate when an app is using either, so
you aren’t caught unawares. If you want
to be even more careful, there are new
Quick Settings toggles to entirely block
camera and/or microphone access for all
apps at once for guaranteed privacy.
There’s also a new ‘approximate
location’ permission so that you can give
more vague location data to apps that
don’t need to know exactly where you
are, like your weather app.
In a message sent to Android
developers in early June, it’s also
been revealed that Google intends
to give users the option to opt-out
of ad tracking, meaning such users’
Advertising ID (which is used for ad
tracking purposes) won’t be supplied
to developers who request and they’ll
instead simply receive a string of zeros.
This follows on from a similar move
Apple made with the release of iOS 14.5,
where apps need to ask permission to
track user information for the purposes of
personalized ads. The obvious difference
here is Google’s opt-out approach versus
Apple’s opt-in, but for users made aware
of the change, it will add a greater layer
of privacy when it comes to ad tracking
that is undoubtedly appreciated.Google Assistant
Google has added yet another way to
access the Google Assistant: a long-
press on the power button. Since this
is already used in all sorts of ways by
different phones, expect this to simply
become another of several options for
this button shortcut.Quick Settings
Back on Quick Settings, the menu has
been redesigned as part of wider tweaks
to the notification tray. Most excitingly,
there are new Quick Settings options
to access your Google Home device
settings and Google Pay.