After months of testing, Android 12L, the big-screen enhanced version of Android 12, is officially rolling out, arriving as part of today's Feature Drop update for Pixels and shortly to additional tablets and foldables from companies like Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft.
If you haven't been following along with our Android 12L feature coverage, the short version is that the majority of the improvements were made to solve concerns that bigger devices experience while running Android. This includes UI adjustments ranging from the notification shade to launcher grid scaling, as well as some multitasking tweaks and a redesigned taskbar that functions more like Chrome OS — Google's attempt to unify its interfaces across suitable screen sizes. Here are some of the differences between Android 12L and Android 13.
Google (and build numbers) indicate that the March 2022 Pixel Feature Drop update was developed on Android 12L, meaning Pixels will be the first to receive it — as is customary for Android version releases. However, Pixel users will miss out on the most of the benefits because the improvements in this minor version (dubbed Android 12.1) are primarily aimed at smartphones with larger displays.
The update also includes a slew of bug patches for Pixels, as well as certain improvements Pixel 6 customers won't be able to experience until the upgrade arrives later this month.
So yet, no specific date has been set for when devices capable of utilising Android 12L's modifications will receive it. Google did state that Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft intend to release Android 12L for their devices later this year, meaning that tablets and folding phones from those firms would receive it, but no exact dates were provided.
