Samsung starts shipping Android 12L after waiting six months

Google may have already moved on to Android 13However, the largest Android manufacturer, Samsung, is only now beginning to update devices to Android 12L. Android 12L was released in March, so Samsung’s update time is around six months.

Yesterday, the company announce Android 12L for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3, which were launched with Android 11 last year. Just before the weekend, Samsung announce Android 12L for its flagship tablet also with Galaxy Tab S8 The first series is on deck for updates.

Both devices are great candidates for Android 12L, since this version was mostly focused On devices with large screens and foldable. The title feature is the bottom taskbar, which displays icons from recent apps, allowing you to switch between them easily. There are new split screen features like the ability to see three apps simultaneously, and you can easily turn on split screen by dragging an app from the taskbar. There is also a new split notification panel.

There is no word on the Android 12L update for Samsung’s flagship smartphone, Galaxy S22. S22 just got update Which shocked Samsung’s skin version number with the same big-screen Android 12L devices, so there’s a good chance the 12L will never reach standard Samsung smartphones.

Rolling out Android 12L was a new strategy for Google, which seems to have worked. Releases usually come near the end of the year on Pixel phones, and the rest of the Android ecosystem is slowly starting to roll out the next calendar year. Android 12L saw Google split its year of Android development time in two, with the 12L released in March and a smaller Android 13 release in August.

we wrote in timeUsing the Rush the 12L features outside the home gives Samsung and Lenovo the usual six months to get a new Android version ready in time for the holidays. That appears to be exactly what happened, with Samsung’s August release of the Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4 getting Android 12L feature and those updates arriving in time for the end of the year. If you can’t speed up Android ecosystem updates, slicing in half and prereleasing the code seems to be a viable strategy to get key features to market faster.

List image from Samsung