Android 12 update: New features, beta 3 rollout, scrolling screenshots, and all that you can expect

Android 12 is getting plenty of improvements with each build. While the stable build is still a few months away, users can already experience the Android 12 through beta builds. A couple of days ago, Google rolled out the third Beta of Android 12. It brings features like Scrolling screenshots, a smarter auto-rotate, on-device search and a lot more.

Android 12 is deemed to be a big update, and that's pretty much evident in the builds seen until now. Google is planning a total of eight releases in the coming months before the stable version rolls out to the Pixels and other devices later this year. For now, we have gathered everything that Android 12 Beta 3 has on offer, so let's dive right in.

Android 12 beta 3 update: New features

--In the latest beta 3 version of Android 12, Google has brought improvements to the existing features and added a few more. About which we will be talking in detail here.

Photo Credit- Google, Rolling screenshot feature in Android 12

--The Scrolling Screenshots feature is new to Android 12 and has been spotted in previous developer previews. While every other smartphone manufacturer has implemented this feature, Google was yet to bring this feature until now. The Scrolling Screenshots feature is live on beta 3, and it works based on views, unlike the stitching technique used by other OEMs. On Android 12, whenever a screen is taken, the user will see a "capture more" option in the screenshot preview. The screenshot expands to the whole screen when the option is tapped, allowing the user to crop the required area.

--Further, the auto-rotate feature is getting an upgrade. Android 12 will use a combination of gyro-sensors with facial recognition to accurately determine as to when the screen should be rotated. While this could raise security concerns for the users, Google says that the pictures captured during the use of this feature are processed on-device within the phone's Private Computer Core and not sent to any servers.

--On-device search is another feature coming to Android 12. Starting with Beta 3, Google is bringing platform support for App Search, a new on-device search engine. With AppSearch, apps can index structured data and search over it with built-in full-text search capabilities, and they can use native features like highly-efficient indexing and retrieval, multi-language support, and relevancy ranking," Google said in a blog post. Simply put, Android 12 will improve on-device search by allowing developers to make their app data accessible to the device search feature. For example, you could be able to search a specific file sent over Whatsapp through the device search field itself.

Photo Credit- XDA, Material You getting customization option with Android 12 beta 3

--Material You that was presented during the Google IO this year is finally customisable now. In beta 2, picking a wallpaper did generate an automatic theme, but palette customisation wasn't available. But the feature is now on Android Beta 3. So you can now change the system theme colour after the wallpaper is applied. You will get to choose between palette options generated by Material You or basic colours to theme the entire system.

--Additionally, in the Wallpaper and design app, there's a new "themed icons" toggle. Enabling this option changes the app icons to match the system theme. As per XDA, the themed icons toggle was hidden in Beta 2. The website also says that the feature is currently applicable only to Google app icons.

--Starting from beta 3, users will be able to copy URLs right from the recent apps overview. Also, it's worth noting that Google has added a toggle to disable swipe up to invoke the Google Assistant feature.

--Media Player has been regularly tweaked by Google. Now in beta 3, a new option called "Show media recommendations has been added". XDA reports the feature is not live yet as it is integrated into the upcoming "Live Space" feature. "At a glance" widget is now renamed as "Live Space". While nothing has changed, it is expected to get new toggles like At a store, media recommendations, sports, stocks, birthdays and more.

--Furthermore, Storage Settings will now show how much space your Phone's storage is taking up. Besides this, a few changes have also been spotted in the Bubbles feature. With beta 3, the close target is much larger, and the snap animation while closing the bubble is done more neatly.

--Game Dashboard is another feature coming to Android 12. While the feature is not live yet, it has seen plenty of improvement. The Gaming Dashboard will allow users to start a live stream through YouTube Live. It also has a few settings toggles for things like taking a screenshot, starting a screen recording, toggling the FPS counter and toggling Do Not Disturb mode.