Google is expected to improve Picture-in-Picture mode with Android 12 later this year. Android 12 is also expected to come with some animation tweaks for chat bubbles that were introduced last year with Android 11.
Picture-in-Picture has been around since Android Oreo, and Google has been adding slight improvements over the years. In Android 12, its functionality will be much easier, according to XDA Developers. At present, the PiP window can be expanded by dragging your finger from the corners. The same is followed to shrink the PiP window. In Android 12, doing this will be much easier and convenient.
Google is adding the ability to pinch to resize the PiP window and double-tap it to expand to its maximum size or its last resized state. PiP mode in Android 12 is also getting a “stashing” feature that hides the PiP window to the left or right side of the screen. About a third of the PiP window will be hidden and only a small part will be visible for users to pull it out again and continue using it.
Chat bubbles that were introduced in Android 11 will get new animations in Android 12. “There will be a fading/scaling down animation when dragging out an expanding bubble, softer expand/collapse animations, and a softer transition between bubbles. In landscape mode, bubbles will be shown vertically on the left/right side rather than horizontally at the top,” according to XDA Developers.
There are several other lock screen UI changes in-development for Android 12. Google is said to be finally tweaking the UI of the pattern lock used for the lock screen. They are also working to integrate Android’s Device Controls feature into a dialog on the lock screen, accessible from an “affordance” on the keyguard’s bottom area.
