Android 12L is official as “Android 12.1,” rolling out now to Pixel phones

Enlarge / Android 12.1, with the new taskbar UI at the bottom. (credit: Google)

Google's tablet-focused release of Android, Android 12L, is hitting production devices today as "Android 12.1." Google's tablet update is debuting in a rather awkward fashion with no actual tablet hardware to run on. Google says that tablet hardware will be coming "later this year" with Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft planning foldables and tablets with the new OS.

What we're getting today are Pixel phone releases for the Pixel 3a, Pixel 4, Pixel 4a, Pixel 5, and Pixel 5a. The Pixel 6 is once again not getting an update at the same time as other devices, though Google tells 9to5Google that a Pixel 6 update will be out later this month. Since almost all of the Android 12L features are tablet features, the release does little for phones.

The tablet notification panel, which weirdly is no better than the phone panel. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

The big features of Android 12.1 are a new taskbar UI for tablets, dual-pane UIs for the notification panel and system settings, and a new recent-apps view for bigger screens. For normal-size screens, you get the smallest amount of tweaks, like the ability to turn off Android 12's big lock-screen clock and a new UI for quickly picking wallpaper.

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