It may be part of the game mode we hear about
This year’s Android 12 update is set to be Google’s biggest launch in years, judging by all the interesting new features we’re discovering. Earlier today, XDA Recognized Developer and a friend of the Quinny899 site gave us our first look at the hidden conversation widget on Android 12, but that was not the only feature it enabled. Thanks to some reverse engineering, he was able to make the hidden feature of the Google Gaming Dashboard work. Currently, he is extremely barebones and has only a floating toolbar with two non-functional buttons, but this is the first time that we have seen another unreleased Android 12 feature.
As you can see in the image below, two icons are superimposed at the top of the screen: a recording icon and a controller icon.
Android 12 hidden game development toolbar. Credits: Kieron Quinn / Quinny899.
According to the Gaming Dashboard code contained in the Android 12 SystemUI, the record button simply starts a screen recording session. This is useful when you want to record your screen without interrupting the game by pulling down on the Quick Settings panel. As for the button with the controller icon, we don’t know what to do because it doesn’t work and there is no obvious functionality associated with it in the code.
The Gaming Dashboard classes are part of the com.google.android.systemui namespace instead of com.android.systemui, which suggests that this feature may be unique to Pixel. However, many OEMs already have their own Game Mode features and there is nothing in this release that stands out now. Before the launch of the first Developer Preview, we learned that Google is working on a game mode for Android 12. We don’t know if this new Game Panel and the Game Mode we heard about are the same or if the previous one is just a feature created based on the new GameManager service. We’ll likely learn more information in subsequent Android 12 developer views.