With the new Android 12L release, Google has resumed its focus on Android on large-screen devices (also known as Android 12.1). The new release added a taskbar and updated tablet and foldable layouts, but there is still work to be done, and Google has a few more improvements planned for Android 13.
Android 12L beta versions contained a new notification feature that enabled you to move a notification to one side of the screen to open it in split-screen mode. The capability was never completely enabled, even in the final Android 12L release, but it has now made a comeback in the second Developer Preview for Android 13. Best of all, unlike in Android 12L, it doesn't need to be explicitly activated - as Esper's Mishaal Rahman pointed out in a tweet, it's already enabled for everyone, albeit it's still a little flaky.'
The new gesture comes on the heels of additional enhancements to multitasking and tablet compatibility in Android 13 and 12L. Android presently displays alerts on the side of the screen that was most last interacted with, which is far from natural. The new gesture will help make split-screen mode more predictable, however Google may need to make the capability more discoverable before Android 13 is released.
Runtime permissions for app alerts, enhanced Japanese text wrapping, a new Text Conversion API for languages such as Japanese, COLR typefaces, MIDI 2.0, Bluetooth LE Audio, and other modifications are also included in Android 13 Developer Preview 2. More information and download links for Pixel devices may be found in our main Android 13 Developer Preview 2 article.
