Google OS, phone home: Leaked Android 12 screenshots suggest new design, privacy features

Early Android 12 screenshots leaked yesterday on XDA have revealed what looks like a major design refresh and new privacy features, though they are unofficial and we cannot guarantee their authenticity. Major Android releases typically come annually, in August or September, the last being Android 11 in September 2020. Rollout …

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Location

I'd like to see Google reverting the requirement to have Location enabled for WIFI/Bluetooth scanning. That was introduced in Android 6. If the user does not mind it being enabled, then fine, the user can have the advantages like faster enumeration that Google say it is needed for - but put the user in charge of that.

[bombastic bob]

Re: Location

good point. You're supposed to be able to control access to location info for applications, last I checked, but how many people do NOT click "enable" for it when prompted?

Or... go through the list of pre-installs and DISABLE it

Is there a "master disable" settings feature yet? That should be in there, too - disable "whatever" for ALL applications no matter how loudly they whine [as an example] and, better still, feed them bogus data so they don't break. Well, I can wish, cant I?

[Swedish Chef]

Re: Location

> and, better still, feed them bogus data so they don't break

FWIW, Oppo phones offer this to some degree. You can set apps to be served an empty phone book, call log, message (SMS) list and "events" (whatever that last one does is unclear - suppress system broadcasts?). Not much but a start. If you know where to look, you can also manage some of the more obscure app permissions, such as an app gathering info on other installed apps. At the very least it's a step in the right direction.

There are also some Xposed-based solutions for rooted phones, but stability-wise they all seem to be perpetually stuck in alpha.

I still miss the original LBE Privacy Guard. I've never seen anything even remotely as powerful.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Location

and, better still, feed them bogus data so they don't break

It is possible to do that up to a point, by using a [Mock Location app], under [Developer Options]

A quick search came up with this

https://www.virtuallocation.com/fake-location/allow-mock-locations.html

I've written a quick Mock Location app which just reports a fixed location - but we shouldn't have to resort to this sort of thing - it needs Google/Alphabet to actually "Do the right thing"/"Don't be evil", make that an easily set user option and not just state those empty words in their code of conduct.

You still have to take Google's word that even if you have disabled Location, it is not phoning home with that...

[Cuddles]

Re: Location

Are you sure it was Android 6? My phone is stuck on 8, and bluetooth and wifi work just fine without location being enabled. I think it was 9 that introduced that silliness.

[TeeCee]

Ohshit.

"...aims to elevate people and conversations in the system surfaces of the phone."

Well that's Android stuffed then. They've run out of useful shit to do and have brought in a Strategy Boutique to come up with a dialogue for their future direction.

Well, either that or they've just discovered Wankword Bingo.

[needmorehare]

It's what happens

When you go from being a platform leader to being a follower.

* GSuite used to be vastly superior to Office 365

* Android had a massive lead in functionality over iOS

* Google's communications tools used to be best-in-class

* People used to widely contribute to Google projects

These days. it is like all the decent, passionate employees have left and been replaced by the same money-grabbing, soulless folks who used to slave away for Microsoft in the early 00s.

[Anonymous Coward]

How about not changing the bloody UI every update? I want to use the phone, not spend an hour working out where you hid some option, or removed it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Look on the bright side - soon you can have a conversation about it. Although not with Google Support, because not even Jesus can call those bastards.

[Michael Wojcik]

Glendower: I can call Support from the vasty deep.

Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?

[ThatOne]

> I want to use the phone, not spend an hour working out where you hid some option

Yeah, but nobody asked you. You're not supposed to use the phone, you're just supposed to buy it. Marketing wants the latest version to look "new and fresh", so they need to shuffle things around and change how things work, even if it is breaking functionality. All what matters is "new and fresh", once again, it's not supposed to be used, it's just supposed to bought.

Note this seems to be the case with all types of software out there nowadays: Most browsers for instance are totally slaves to that "change for change's sake and never ever mind usability" paradigm, and as a result they are today way less capable than their versions of 5 years ago.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh for a phone ...

How about Android prioritising answering a phone call over everything else. No random <insert other operation> that it decides you have to do before you can answer, or hiding the screen to hang-up a phone call.

It is called a "phone", after all, please allow it to act like one.

[Tim99]

... Android 12 screenshots suggest... privacy features

Snark.

...Oh!, you meant for third-party apps! Obviously, it can't apply to Alphabet...

[Anonymous Coward]

'more rounded corners'

Cupertino lawyers sniff the air at hearing those magic words...

[_LC_]

Privacy features

If Google were to protect your privacy, they'd give you fine graded control over the network access.

When hell freezes over...

[96percentchimp]

Stop killing apps with battery optimisation

Is it too much to hope that Google will calm down the fashion for over-aggressive battery optimisation? It's becoming a major PITA for fitness apps which need to track location, but can't access the function even when it's been enabled by the user. I accept that there's a balance between maintaining function and zapping greedy apps, but IMO it's swung too far away from functionality, towards manufacturers claiming long battery life by killing anything that needs to use background functions. And strangely enough, it doesn't affect the bloat that the big brands still stuff into their devices.

[Martin Summers]

Re: Stop killing apps with battery optimisation

You can turn that off per app.

[Michael Wojcik]

Android, now with 20% more horrible!

elevate people and conversations in the system surfaces of the phone

Well that sounds just dreadful. I already have to disable all sorts of obnoxious notifications and other crap every time I get an update.

on-device intelligence determines the conversations that the user is most likely to be interested in

Here's an idea: how about letting the intelligence holding the phone make that decision?

The number one thing I want from my user experience is a minimum of surprise.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Android, now with 20% more horrible!

At the next Google I/O Conference (or look in youtube for past events), just listen to some of the keynotes and other speakers - I got the impression that almost everyone was trying to convey that what they were doing was genuinely for the betterment of humanity.

[ThatOne]

Re: Android, now with 20% more horrible!

> The number one thing I want from my user experience is a minimum of surprise.

That! ^