The latest Android 12 Beta from the start of this month is widely considered to have regressed on stability. As such, Google is releasing Android 12 Beta 2.1 today after going without patches for DP3 and Beta 1.
Beta 2.1 addresses several complaints that impact day-to-day usage of Android 12. One of the bigger user-facing problems in Beta 1 was not being able to unlock your phone from the lockscreen as swiping somehow got disabled. You could fortunately still use fingerprint unlock over PIN entry, but being unable to access the notification shade or swipe away alerts without first rebooting was extremely inconvenient.
Android 12 Beta 2.1 also returns weather and calendar events to the At a Glance widget on the lockscreen/always-on display. Other user-facing fixes are for flickering/jittery animations when accessing recent apps with gesture navigation, while Google addressed the microphone and camera permission indicators getting stuck until a device reboot.
The full release notes mention two other fixes:
- Fixed an issue that prevented users from accessing things on the lock screen. For example, swiping down for the notification shade, swiping away notifications, or swiping up to unlock the phone. (Issue #190702454)
- Fixed issues that caused information such as weather and calendar events to not appear in the At a Glance widget on the home screen or lock screen. (Issue #190700432, Issue #190644743)
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused flickering or jittery animations when accessing recent apps with gesture navigation.
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused microphone and camera permission indicators to get stuck and disappear until the phone was rebooted.
- Fixed an issue when using the Android Emulator with an Android Virtual Device (AVD) running Android 12 that prevented the AVD from connecting to the internet.
- Fixed an issue where after taking Beta and resetting the device, some users are were stuck on setup wizard (Issue #190082536).
Android 12 Beta 2.1 (SPB2.210513.011) is rolling out now (4.1MB on 4a) as an OTA that can be easily installed via the “Check for update” button in Settings. It’s also available via manual download and flashing. If you need help, here’s our full guide on installing Android 12.
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