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The Android team at Google announced the fourth beta of Android 12, which locks in all the app-facing behaviours of the operating system while making it stabler. The company said that this is a major milestone in the road toward the Android 12 release later this year.

Developers can now test and update their apps to ensure that their future releases will be compatible with Android 12.

App development will now focus on compatibility, finishing touches, and security measures, in readiness for the final release of the OS.

Testing phases

For developers, testing app compatibility for the Android 12 Beta 4 platform is easy. They will only have to download their production app from Google Play onto any device or emulator with the beta and test it out to ensure that there are no issues that need fixing.

Android 12 has several behaviour changes for apps focused on user privacy and user interface design.

Now is the time for developers to review the behaviour changes that will affect Android 12. For instance, the Privacy Dashboard in Settings allows users to see which apps access what kind of data and when.

Changes

The privacy changes also allow users to adjust permissions if necessary and request details from apps regarding why they need any permissions they ask a user to grant.

Apps can also be written to explain to the users the rationale for why they should provide permission. Android 12 also has an indicator in the status bar that lets you know when an app is using the microphone or camera.

There are new toggles in ‘Quick Settings’ to allow users to disable camera and microphone access for all apps. Read more about what to expect in Android 12 here.