Bought a Pixel? Do not miss these 8 buried Android 12 treasures

Effectively, my fellow Pixel buddies, the time has lastly arrived: After months of improvement, mountains of beta releases, and a weirdly empty-feeling tease of a code launch, Google’s Android 12 replace is lastly on its method into our moist, sweaty paws.

Android 12 represents one of the crucial important evolutions to the working system in ages — arguably since all the way in which again with 2014’s Android 5.0 Lollipop launch. And far of that comes right down to how the software program operates on Google’s personal Pixel units.

A lot of Android 12’s most significant modifications appear to be they’re going to be unique to Pixels, in actual fact, which represents a fairly substantial shift in what Android even is and what the working system represents. That is why I have been referring to this as the beginning of the Android Pixel period — as a result of now greater than ever, there’s the Android expertise, after which there’s the Android Pixel expertise. The latter is the place a lot of Google’s most spectacular new magic resides, and as a Pixel proprietor, that is the expertise you may be getting.

Now, you have most likely heard a lot about Android 12’s most distinguished options — the brand new Materials You design, most notably, together with the various much less flashy however much more necessary privacy-related enhancements the software program delivers.

However past these marquee options lies a treasure trove of tucked-away time-savers, experience-enhancers, and different refined new touches — a few of which is able to make their method to different Android units finally however lots of which appear prone to be unique to Pixels for the foreseeable future. They don’t seem to be in any respect apparent, and most folk won’t ever even notice they’re current. However consider you me: They’re properly value your whereas to uncover.

Listed here are eight shiny new gems buried in your Pixel as of the Android 12 replace. Dig ’em up, strive ’em out, after which come join my free Pixel Academy e-course to uncover much more hidden Pixel magic.

New Pixel trick No. 1: Auto-rotate intelligence

Certainly one of my favourite Pixel additions from Android 12 is a intelligent new system for dealing with your telephone’s auto-rotate perform in a way more efficient method. It seems to be accessible solely on the Pixel 4 and better, however in case you have a kind of fashions, the system will depend on your front-facing digital camera to see which method your face is positioned at any given second after which be certain your display’s orientation is at all times positioned to match.

Which means you may by no means once more need to endure from the annoying impact of getting your display auto-rotate itself into its horizontal place if you’re holding the telephone at a slight angle — or perhaps mendacity again on the sofa while catching up on some emails.

Learn how to discover it

On the Pixel 4 or increased, as soon as Android 12 is in place:

• Head into the Show part of your system settings.
• Faucet the road labeled “Auto-rotate display.”
• Be sure that the toggle subsequent to “Use Auto-rotate” is lively, then activate the toggle subsequent to “Allow Face Detection” beneath it.

JR

Not a foul starting, eh? And we’re solely getting began.

New Pixel trick No. 2: Smarter search

From the Hilariously Overdue However Eagerly Welcomed Enhancements file, this subsequent new Pixel function transforms the search bar on your property display and makes it a few zillion occasions extra helpful than it was earlier than.

As long as you are utilizing the default Pixel residence display setup and never a third-party Android launcher, Android 12 will supercharge that humble-looking bar and empower it to tug up outcomes out of your contacts, conversations, apps, and settings in a single streamlined place. With one faucet, you’ll be able to even pull up an everyday ol’ web seek for no matter time period you are typing.

JR

Now, why Google of all corporations did not supply such a system up till now could be an entire different query. Search me. However what issues is that it is there and accessible eventually — if you realize the place to look.

Learn how to discover it

First issues first, we’d like to ensure your new Pixel search system is enabled:

• Press and maintain your finger on any empty house in your Pixel telephone’s residence display, then choose “Dwelling settings” within the menu that comes up.
• Faucet the road labeled “Search your telephone.”
• Be sure that all the toggles on the display that comes up subsequent are on and lively.

Now, this is the marginally complicated half: The major search bar on the house display will not allow you to search all these things. You have gotta swipe up as soon as to open your app drawer, then use the search bar in that space of your property display to get the goodies.

In fact, if you happen to’re an efficiency-obsessed productiveness seeker, you’ll be able to take issues a step additional and use a super-clever Android widget to make your property display search system much more highly effective but. However for most individuals, this new setup is a incredible leap ahead and an exceptional enchancment from what was beforehand attainable.

New Pixel trick No. 3: Wi-Fi flip-flop

Some days, Wi-Fi could make you cry — or, on the very least, sigh. (My, oh my.) The subsequent time you are coping with a shaky connection or need to change to a special community on the fly, bear in mind: With Android 12, your Pixel has an easier-than-ever method to make that occur. No lie!

As an alternative of trudging your method by way of layers of settings, now you can handle your Wi-Fi reference to a single fast faucet and a helpful new pop-up menu. All you have gotta do is bear in mind the place it is hiding.

Learn how to discover it

This one’s as straightforward as could be. With Android 12 in your Pixel, merely:

• Swipe down from the highest of the display and faucet the Web tile in your Fast Settings space. (When you do not see it instantly, you may need to swipe down a second time to get to it.)
• You may then see that purty pop-up panel seem on the backside of your display, and from there, it is however a single additional faucet to regulate your community connection in any method you see match.

JR

Three cheers for seconds saved!

New Pixel trick No. 4: One-handed motion

In an amusingly ironic twist, most present Android telephones aren’t actually made for ergonomic use — not if you’re attempting to swipe and faucet round on their screens with the identical hand you are utilizing to carry ’em, anyway. And if you happen to’re something like me, you most likely do this fairly darn usually.

Effectively, excellent news: Android 12 goes a good distance towards addressing that plus-sized product drawback. It follows the identical path some third-party Android device-makers have taken with their software program and brings a brand new one-handed mode straight into the Google-scented working system. And after you have it enabled, you may get round your telephone way more effectively with a single human appendage at any time when the necessity arises.

Learn how to discover it

Earlier than you should use your Pixel’s new one-handed mode, you may want to ensure it is enabled and arrange the way in which you need:

• Head into the System part of your system settings.
• Faucet “Gestures,” then faucet “One-handed mode.”
• If the toggle subsequent to “Use one-handed mode” is not already activated, flip it into the on place.

Now determine the way you need your one-handed mode to function: Would you quite have it act as a method to summon your Fast Settings and notifications with out having to succeed in all the way in which to the highest of the display — or would you like it to shrink your complete display right down to the decrease half of the show for a cramped however easier-to-reach miniature model of no matter you are viewing?

Decide your desire on that very same display of settings, after which, anytime you need to activate the one-handed mode, swipe downward from the underside fringe of the display — beginning half an inch or so from the decrease edge and making your method down.

JR

It takes a little bit of apply to get the movement excellent, however as soon as you have mastered it, nothing will ever be out of attain once more. Aside from perhaps your sanity. However look, I am simply the tech man. There’s solely a lot I can do.

New Pixel trick No. 5: Scrolling screenshots

Ever end up needing to seize greater than a single screen-full of information — like an prolonged menu inside your system settings that you simply need to present to another person, mayhaps, or a sprawling checklist of emails you need to share with a colleague?

Android 12 makes it attainable, albeit solely in sure restricted circumstances for the second.

Learn how to discover it

The subsequent time you are capturing a screenshot, pay shut consideration to the affirmation that exhibits up on the backside of your display. If the prolonged screenshot choice is obtainable, you may see a refined new button in that space that claims “Seize extra.”

Faucet that unhealthy boy, and you will find your self going through a elaborate new enhancing interface the place you’ll be able to lengthen the picture to incorporate as a lot of the display as you need — as if you happen to had been scrolling downward on it and exhibiting a number of screens’ value of information directly.

JR

The one catch is that this may not work in locations like your browser, the place it’d most likely be the most helpful. However nonetheless, it is a begin — and having it accessible in some locations is actually higher than not having it in any respect.

New Pixel trick No. 6: Screenshot swipe-away

Talking of screenshots, the subsequent time you seize one, you’ll be able to merely swipe the affirmation away to dismiss it as a substitute of getting to faucet the tiny “x” to get it off your display. It is an overdue and nearly shockingly smart twist that’ll cease fluffy-headed doofuses like me from attempting to swipe that factor away after which trying foolish when nothing occurs.

Learn how to discover it

There’s actually not a lot to this:

• Seize a screenshot (by urgent your Pixel’s energy and volume-down buttons collectively or utilizing another methodology you like).
• When that affirmation pops up in your display, simply flick your finger on it — towards the left or the fitting — and have a good time the weirdly delayed simplicity of this obvious-seeming motion’s arrival.

JR

Surprisingly satisfying, is not it?

New Pixel trick No. 7: Image-in-picture resizing

Certainly one of Android 12’s most refined additions is a one-two punch of enhancements for the platform’s picture-in-picture system — y’know, these little floating containers that pop up if you’re watching a video or within the midst of a navigation after which transfer again to your property display or on to a different app.

The primary picture-in-picture enchancment is a better method to change the scale of an lively picture-in-picture window — an motion that was technically attainable in older Android variations however with far much less flexibility and consistency than this.

Learn how to discover it

Hearth up a brand new picture-in-picture field — by beginning a video in a supported app or launching a navigation in Google Maps after which shifting again to your property display — after which:

• Pinch two fingers outward on the field to enlarge it.
• Or pinch two fingers inward to make it smaller.

JR

Now you can stretch the field nearly all the way in which out to the complete width of your telephone’s display, if you’d like, or make it right into a tiny and comparatively unobtrusive thumbnail (all the higher for hiding your noon Toto-watching break while nonetheless showing to be reviewing a Very Essential Enterprise Doc).

New Pixel trick No. 8: Image-in-picture positioning

Final however not least for at present, with Android 12 in your Pixel, you’ll be able to briefly shove a enjoying picture-in-picture field out of your method with out dismissing it solely — which is a spectacular method to totally concentrate on one thing else in your display (say, the Wikipedia web page of 70s rock band Toto) after which come again to no matter you had been watching if you’re executed.

Miniscule of an adjustment because it appears, this needs to be certainly one of my favourite sensible, real-world enhancements from Android 12 and one of many options I have been discovering myself utilizing most of all by myself Pixel telephone.

Learn how to discover it

As soon as once more, begin up any picture-in-picture video in your display. This time:

• Contact your finger to the video field and slide all of it the way in which to the left or proper facet of the display.
• The field will nearly vanish off the sting of your display, with only a teensy bit nonetheless exhibiting.
• If you’re able to carry the field again, contact the seen half and slide it again into no matter place you need.

JR

I’ve mentioned it earlier than, and I will say it once more: Typically, it is the little issues that make the largest distinction.

Keep tuned for extra Android-12-provided Pixel energy quickly, and remember to come be part of my fully free Pixel Academy e-course for seven spectacular days of efficiency-enhancing Pixel information — beginning with some camera-centric smarts and shifting from there to superior picture magic, next-level nuisance reducers, and oodles of different alternatives for pro-level Pixel intelligence.

Shiny new units might at all times be tempting, however right here within the land o’ Pixels, you do not have to spend a single cent to search out cutting-edge options that’ll make your life simpler.

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