It brings Google’s ‘Material You’ UI to life.

This UI is about the dynamic elements, animations, rounded corners, etc.

The first change is the notification shade and the quick settings panel. It looks somewhat like the Chinese manufacturer MI’s custom UI skin, MIUI.

I feel these look better than the previous version and usual icons. The notifications have rounded corners with app icons on the left and are more prominent.

It also shows the number of notifications from an app better, and the snooze notification option is available right there.

Notification History

They’ve also included a notification history button with all the notifications sent to you, with their time stamps.

Multiple Media Players

There’s also support for multiple media players in one place. You can swipe inside the notification panel to play between Spotify, YouTube, Google podcasts, etc.

When you swipe down again, you can see three more options. These are the quick settings, switching/adding user accounts, and lastly, all settings.

The brightness toggle is now thicker and better.

Camer & Mic Privacy Toggles

There are two new toggles as well, pretty much inspired by iOS.

1. The Camera Toggle
2. The Microphone Toggle

These allow users to toggle, allowing the usage of the camera and the microphone for any app.

Lock Screen Changes

The lock screen has also changed. It will show you the weather details, with a small icon and these look good in my opinion.

You also get a massive clock on the lock screen, which will be customizable in the future.

There is a new thick volume UI, which is getting mixed reactions. But it blends pretty well.

Another change is the pixel launcher. It gives you the ability to get app suggestions on the bottom launcher. Now, these will change according to your usage.

The settings do not see a lot of change apart from the increased font size. The one-handed accessibility mode has improved.

Reachability Feature

There is also a one-handed mode which is very similar to the reachability feature from iOS. You can swipe down to the bottom, and the whole UI will come down for better access to the top UI elements.

There are new animations everywhere, like for charging and for screen off and screen on.

Privacy Feature

There is a cool privacy feature that allows an app to use an approximate location of the device.

This is convenient as compared to giving the exact location.

How did you like the Android 12 UI?