Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
- Today, Google is rolling out Android 12 DP 3, the final (planned) preview before the first official beta.
- The latest preview has a slew of new features, including precise haptic feedback control, app launch templates, and deeper web linking.
- You can get this preview on your recent Pixel device now. However, it is still not quite ready to be used as a daily driver.
Today, right on schedule, Google announced the third developer preview for the latest version of Android, known as Android 12. This latest preview brings a bunch of new features to Android 12 as well as the usual stability improvements we expect with each new iteration.
If you already have Android 12 DP 2 on your Pixel phone, you will eventually see an OTA notification to update to Android 12 DP 3. If you don’t want to wait, you can always click here to manually upgrade.
Related: Android 12 features: Everything confirmed and rumored so far
If you don’t have Android 12 on your Pixel phone yet, we have instructions on how to install it. However, even with this third preview, Android 12 is definitely not ready to be used as a daily driver. The first beta of the software will launch in May — probably during Google I/O 2021. That will be the first “stable enough” version for general consumers.
What’s new in Android 12 DP 3?
Since this is the final expected preview before the big beta launch next month, there are only a handful of new features here. Some of them are pretty exciting, but Google is likely holding back a lot of the bigger reveals for the beta launch in May.
With Android 12 DP 3, one of the biggest new features is a more accurate haptic feedback control. This would allow developers to put precise haptic responses in their apps both for phones and for supported gaming controllers. This would allow for a more immersive gaming experience, not unlike what Sony offers with its PlayStation 5 DualSense controller.
See also: The best games with gamepad support for Android
Elsewhere, this new preview introduces a standardized app splash screen. In Android today, some apps have splash screens and some don’t. The ones that do have splash screens could be wildly different from another. Google wants to standardize this, so now every app will have a splash screen. Developers can customize the screen in various ways should they choose to.
Finally, a big update here involves web linking. In Android 12 DP 3, opening a link will take you directly to your default browser, regardless of the source of that link. This would change the way links work in shopping apps, for example. However, developers can still program their branded links to open within specific apps, but they will need to program this behavior themselves rather than rely on the user to make the decision.
For all the other Android 12 updates in this new preview, click here. Stay tuned as we will have updates on unannounced changes as the day progresses.
