Compatible Pixel models receive Android 12L as part of the March feature drop

For the first time since Android 3.0 Honeycomb was released in February 2011, a special version of Android for larger-screened devices has been dropped by Google. Android 12L (with the "L" standing for "Large") is now available on certain Pixel phones with features, Google says, that will make tablets and foldable devices easier to use.

Google has created dedicated columns for notifications and quick tiles giving users more space to view notifications and swipe them away. With the larger screened devices the target for Android 12L, Google says that it is "optimizing the display for the home screen, lock screen, notification shade, device set-up screens, settings and beyond, so they look even better on tablet and foldable screens."

And Android 12L allows users to do things on one page that would force them to go back and forth between pages on the standard Android 12 version. For example, if you want to change the Wallpaper on your Android device, with Android 12 you would tap on "Wallpaper & style" from the Settings page and go through the inventory of Wallpaper on other pages until you find the one you want.

With Android 12L, the user will tap on "Wallpaper & style" from the navigation panel and make his selection from the wallpaper that can be viewed from the screen all without having to visit another page. Android 12L also features a taskbar to make it a snap to open and switch between apps.

Drag and drop any app from the taskbar to open split-screen mode which allows you to view a YouTube video while watching the news, for example. Or use the Chrome browser while searching for a hotel in a city that you're planning to vacation, while at the same time looking up the location of that hotel in Google Maps.

Google says that later this year it will bring Android 12L to your favorite tablets and foldables via planned updates from Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft. And it will continue to add more features to improve the capabilities of your large screened devices running Android 13 "and beyond."

The models eligible to receive Android 12L include: