It was an important two weeks for Android fans. First came the leaks. Then Google officially released the Android 12 developer preview, allowing onlookers to dig deeper and see what the company is really working on. The past few days have brought many discoveries of tweaks and features that Android 12 will offer, including some tips on what changes to the user interface may be on the way.
First: stacked widgets, similar to iOS. Mishaal Rahman identified the “expanded smart space” feature, which appears to allow users to scroll through widgets that occupy the same space on the home screen. It is similar to the Smart Stacks feature introduced in iOS 14, which allows you to “stack” widgets of the same size and scroll between them.
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XDA Developers it was also able to confirm some of the previously leaked UI changes. He was able to enable a new lock screen and display always on, with a larger clock text that appears with the hours over the minutes. On the lock screen, it floats to the right when notifications are received. The always-on screen also shows a new placement of the notification icons in the upper left corner of the screen.
It is difficult to know how these UI changes will look in their final form (if they arrive at the client-ready version of Android 12), but we know that Google is planning to change certain aspects of its UI, such as the notification appearance. These developer visualization tips provide an interesting insight into what other changes may be in store.