Even though Android 12 was released in 2021, there are still many hidden features you’re not aware of!
Unfortunately, unless you’re an avid Android user who combs through every menu on your phone, it’s possible that you missed these cool features
This article will list these intriguing features and how to access them. These cool tricks are worth knowing if you love to make your smartphone experience more convenient and pleasant.
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Android 12 Hidden Features
Here are some cool Andriod 12 hidden features I bet you don’t know anything about:
1. Game Mode Dashboard
The Game Mode dashboard is one of Android 12 most stunning hidden features. You must navigate an improbable detour through the settings to activate the game dashboard.
To start, go to Settings and select Notifications. You must hit Do Not Disturb in the General section of the new screen’s scroll-down portion. You then tap Schedules on the new screen that appears after this.
You should notice Gaming and a small gear icon to the right of it on the Schedules screen. Toggle the gear. Turn the switch to the on position lastly.
You’ll notice a dark, transparent arrow on the right side of your screen if the game you’re playing supports this cool feature.
A tiny controller icon will appear when you tap it, which you can tap to bring up the dashboard (at long last!).
Many intriguing alternatives are available in this area, but not all will be supported by every game.
You can choose to use optimization, which depletes your battery, enables a frame rate counter, enables a do-not-disturb switch, and adds a shortcut for recording and screenshotting to your game screen.
You’ll also have the choice to see your profile, where you can check out your standing on the leaderboard and your accomplishments.
2. Audio-coupled haptic effect
Android 12 is attempting to join the bandwagon of making haptic feedback a little more fascinating and practical for the common user, even though it is nothing new for smartphones.
If you don’t remember ” haptic feedback, ” minute vibrations can make digital interfaces feel more tactile.
If you have haptic feedback enabled, for instance, you’ll feel a small vibration when you press a letter on the screen keyboard, simulating the sense of typing on a traditional keyboard.
Android 12 advances this by fusing our phones’ haptic capabilities with music. Each device will have a specific haptic pattern for each installed default ringtone. You could still know who contacts you even if your ringer is off.
As real-time sensations are fed directly into your hands as you interact with your media, video games, movies, and music will become more and more immersive.
3. One-Handed Mode
In one-handed mode, you can quickly and temporarily move the top half of the screen to the bottom half for simpler navigation. All done.
You must navigate to your settings menu to enable this. After that, tap System by swiping down almost to the bottom.
Gestures and one-handed mode are the next things we get to. Your final destination will be a screen with a few options. Either choose “Pull screen into reach” or activate the “One-handed mode shortcut.”
I found the pull option to be difficult. You must place your finger in the ideal location to make it operate without accidentally doing something unintended.
The shortcut is what I advise. This places a cute tiny floating button in the bottom right corner of the screen. When you tap it, the top portion of the screen slides down.
4. Google Material Design
Google Material Design Material is Android 12’s adorable child. If you have a wallpaper with many blue tones, your app backgrounds and icon shading will match the predominantly blue tones in your wallpaper.
Your phone’s aesthetic experience will be tailored when you use Material You. Its ability to build a system-wide color scheme based on your wallpaper and sync it across many devices to produce a uniform yet distinctive visual experience is the key feature of Material You.
It’s mostly automatic, but if you want to fine-tune it, go to Settings and scroll to “Wallpaper & Style” to make your selections.
5. Easter Eggs Galore!
Every new version of the Android operating system has a unique Easter egg. There is nothing special about this one besides the three Easter eggs included.
Anyone who has discovered earlier Android surprises will recognize the first one in a limited way.
Select “Android Version” from the menu under Settings, followed by “About Phone,” and tap it repeatedly.
You can see a large number 12 surrounded by bubbles, making it appear like you are taking a color blindness test if you move the clock’s hands until they read 12.
Once you’ve finished, the Easter egg widget will be accessible. The “Android S Easter Egg” is at the top of your widget settings.
You will have access to the entire color scheme that is being utilized by your device following your wallpaper thanks to this beautiful widget, which is based on your Material You preferences.
Last, if you go to this URL on your smartphone and click the big ‘ol link, you can position a massive statue of the number 12 in augmented reality space.
On the back of the statue are the initials of a list of ice cream flavors that spell out Material You.
6. 24-Hour Notification History
The next hidden features of the Android 12 operating system is one that I like. I’ve found it handy to have a catchall basket for all of my alerts from the previous 24 hours.
Even though it’s quite straightforward and beneficial, the function is difficult to locate. Swipe down on your device to reveal your notifications before turning this on.
If there is a History button at the bottom, congrats—this function is already activated. If not, tap the Manage button to see if it is present.
As an alternative, go to your settings and select Notifications. The first option you’ll see when you arrive is “Notification history.” Switch it on by entering that screen.
Once you’ve swiped them away, your alerts will have a neat location to live for 24 hours.
There is one thing that this function is lacking, though, and I hope they can fix it in the future: a search bar.
7. 2×2 App Button Layout
You could always change the size of your icons, but Android has now included the jumbo-sized 2×2 grid arrangement for your program icons, making the options even more accessibility-conscious.
Although not everyone will benefit from this function, those with weak vision or empty phones may find it useful.
Find a blank area on your home screen, and press down for nearly a full second to turn this on.
When a little menu appears, you must choose “Wallpaper & Style.” You can find the “App grid” area by swiping it to the bottom.
When you tap there, a new screen will open up where you can experiment with all the available grid sizes. They range in size from 5×5 to 2×2.
A total of 25 icons are therefore available to you with the 5×5 choice, compared to just four with the 2×2 option (plus the home row, which remains the same across screens).
It’s also important to note that when you open up app directories, they will also change due to this.
Without making any changes, tapping any of them will give you a great sample of what your screen would look like if you press the Apply button.
All adjustments will be made automatically if you click Apply at the bottom of the screen.
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8. New Media Encoding Support
One for the true technologists out there! AVIF pictures, HEVC video transcoding, and MPEG-H 3D Audio are now supported by Android 12.
Okay, that’s a lot of capital letters and not much context for the non-techies out there. Let me explain why this great function will be useful for all Android users.
Like JPEG, PNG, or GIF, AVIF is a relatively new image file format that offers higher-quality images at even better compression rates.
In other words, you can have an image that looks better and has a smaller hard disk footprint than a JPEG.
Except for video, HEVC is the same concept as AVIF. HEVC is currently used by numerous devices and apps, although not all of them.
Android 12 has on-the-fly video transcoding to make HEVC video files usable throughout the entire operating system for those who don’t.
What about 3D audio in MPEG-H? In essence, that implies your phone will now enable “three-dimensional sound,” some refer to as being in addition to surround sound.
Up to 64 speakers can be spread among 128 core channels, supporting different physical configurations.
Or, for those who support it, it can even imitate aural 3D space when worn with headphones. Massive potential.
9. Better Privacy Settings
Unobtrusive security appears to be one of Android 12’s main objectives. They are promoting new security measures that let you choose how vulnerable you want to be, in other words. Three recent characteristics make this very evident.
The first is restricting access to your location data to only those apps needing it. This means that apps that need some location data but not precise location data can only access your general.
Using your clipboard snippets is another thing Android tries to keep you informed about.
An informational notification will appear at the bottom of the screen if an app accesses your clipboard.
The kill buttons for the microphone and camera are the third and last new security feature I’d like to discuss.
These kill switches can be switched on, and when they are, no app, regardless of previous permissions provided, is permitted to access the microphone or camera.
I don’t know how trustworthy this is, but it increases personal security compared to the old situation.
Additionally, a green indicator will light in the upper right corner of your screen if an app is accessing either your mic or your camera.
Assuming this is true, you’ll always be able to tell when you’re being watched or listened to.
10. Scrollable Screenshots
Another one of Android 12 hidden features is scrollable images. Imagine you want to capture a whole webpage or a significant portion of a conversation in a single photograph if you have no idea what a scrollable screenshot is.
Usually, to get what you wanted, you had to fill your screen, click, scroll down, click, and so on. You may do that or use an external program to assist you in snapping screenshots that are larger than your screen. This functionality is currently an Android-native feature.
This one isn’t quite as obscure as the others, but it still requires some explanation. As usual, the bottom of your screen will line up with several icons once you capture a screenshot.
The rightmost icon will read, “Capture more.” Press that. Then, you’ll be able to capture an image approximately three times as long as your screen (or any length in between).
Even though it doesn’t seem to support anything else, this is a vast improvement over the previous default.
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To Sum Up
Android 12 has many hidden features that can significantly enhance your overall mobile experience.
From privacy and security improvements to user interface enhancements, Google has packed this latest iteration of the Android operating system with hidden gems waiting to be discovered.
So, explore these hidden features, and you may find that Android 12 has even more to offer than you initially thought.
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