Google released the developer’s first preview of its next Android 12 update last week, and we’re busy removing new system apps and firmware to find clues about new features. Although we have discovered a lot ourselves, we have to give credit to talented developers on XDA for finding some of the most interesting features, such as the wallpaper-based theme system and backward gesture detection based on machine learning. Now, Kieron Quinn, aka XDA Recognized Developer Quinny899, is back with another scoop: our first (real) look at the Conversation widget on Android 12.
Our first look at Android 12 came 2 weeks ago and showed radical changes in design, but also a new widget called the conversation widget. According to the documentation reviewed by XDA, Android 12 will feature chat widgets that highlight recent messages, missed calls or activity status. The widget is contained in the Android SystemUI application and is planned to be a mandatory feature for all Android 12 devices.
Google leaked models of the new Android 12 conversation widget feature.
During our practice with the first Android 12 Developer Preview, we didn’t see a conversation widget in the Pixel Launcher’s widget selector. However, we knew that this would come based on code analysis and the presence of a new Activity that asks you to “select a conversation to show on your widget”. Thanks to Quinny899’s reverse engineering efforts, we can not only confirm that this feature is present in the first Developer Preview, but that it really works. Quinny899 was able to add a Conversation widget (currently called “People Space” while in development) that shows some information about the latest message from the Google Messages app. The widget does not currently show the actual content of the message and also does not work with other applications that it has tried, including Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Android 12 development chat widget. Credits: Quinny899 / Kieron Quinn.
A new chat widget is not all that Google is working on Android 12. There is also evidence that Google is working on stacks of iOS-style widgets, although implementation is far from complete. We will continue to delve into the first Developer Preview to see what we can find, but for now, I have no hope of a major revision of the widget in this iteration.