Assuming that google's release schedule matches those from previous years, Google is about to release in a couple of days the new android 12 version for beta testing.
There were no leaks for android 12 until now. We expect a few back-end changes or minor tweaks that could be included. Below we're sharing some screenshots which we think they're the real deal and this could be a first look at the new Android 12.
The screenshots show a mock-up of Android 12 pulled from a document released by Google to their partners. We see a new home screen and icon color palette, a new widget picker with new widget shapes, a minimal and spread out notification shade, and a completely new privacy panel.
As we can see from the shots below, we don't know that it's a dramatic change, but the actual widget picker looks much improved and the shapes of smaller 2×1 widgets look nice.
We see on the notification shade several changes where the quick settings shortcuts have been reduced from 6 down to 4, and a notification shade abandoning its transparent background to a light shade that makes the gaps between sections nicer.
Another thing to watch is a green icon showing both the camera and microphone in the top right corner. It looks kind of like a privacy area highlighting recent apps using those permissions.
To show you another example, in this screenshot I would once again point you to that top-right icon, where Google is showing what that privacy notification would look like in an app when those permissions are in use.
Finally, we see that Google has released a new privacy page within settings that let us disable the camera and mute the microphone on your device with a simple click.
There are quite a few changes we can see on these screenshots. It seems Google is going for big UI adjustments on this release of Android 12 with its focus put on privacy.