Get 12L

Welcome to 12L, a special feature drop coming early next year that makes Android 12 even better on tablets and foldable devices. To learn more about the new features for large screens, see the features and changes overview.

To get started with 12L and try the new features, get 12L in any of the following ways:

Complete instructions are below. Setup is fast and you can try your apps on a variety of screen sizes.

For ideas on what to test, see Get your apps ready.

Get 12L on a partner device

We've partnered with Lenovo to make 12L available for you to try on the Lenovo P12 Pro.

You can learn how to install 12L on the Lenovo P12 Pro by visiting Lenovo's 12L preview site.

Lenovo provides its own channel for reporting issues found on their devices. We highly recommend using each partner's feedback channel to report bugs and feedback that are specific to their devices.

Go to Lenovo's preview site

Set up a 12L virtual device

To set up a 12L virtual device, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure you are running the latest preview version of Android Studio Chipmunk.

  2. In Android Studio, click Tools > SDK Manager.

  3. In the SDK Tools tab, select the latest version of Android Emulator, and click OK. This action installs the latest version if it isn't already installed.

  4. In Android Studio, click Tools > Device Manager, then click Create device in the Device Manager panel.

  5. Select a device definition with a large screen, such as the Pixel C in the Tablet category or the 7.6" Fold-in with outer display in the Phone category, then click Next.

  6. Find the 12L system image, called Android API Sv2, and click Download to get it. After the download completes, select this system image and click Next.

  7. Finalize other settings for your virtual device, then click Finish.

  8. After returning to the list of virtual devices in the Device Manager, find your 12L virtual device and click Launch to start it.

Repeat these steps to create a variety of large screen device definitions that you can use to test your app in a variety of large screen scenarios.

Resizable emulator

In addition to large screen virtual devices that you configure for 12L, you can try the new resizable device configuration that's included in Android Studio Chipmunk Canary 3 or higher. When you're using a resizable device definition with a 12L system image, the Android Emulator lets you quickly toggle between the four reference devices: phone, foldable, tablet, and desktop. When using the foldable reference device, you can also toggle between folded and unfolded states.

This flexibility makes it easier to both validate your layout at design time and test the behavior at runtime, using the same reference devices. To create a new resizable emulator, use the Device Manager in Android Studio to create a new virtual device and select the Resizable device definition.

Use the new resizable device definition for the Android Emulator to test 12L with variety of large screen scenarios.

Get 12L Beta on a Google Pixel device

The easiest way to get 12L Beta on a Google Pixel device is to enroll your device in the Android Beta for Pixel program. Once enrolled, your device will receive regular over-the-air (OTA) updates to the latest 12L builds through (and including) the final release. Enrolling is a simple and fast process, and it's highly recommended for early adopters and developers. In most cases, you don't need to do a full reset of your data to move to 12L Beta, but it’s recommended that you back up data before enrolling your device.

12L Beta is available on the following Pixel devices:

  • Pixel 3a and 3a XL
  • Pixel 4 and 4 XL
  • Pixel 4a and 4a (5G)
  • Pixel 5 and Pixel 5a
  • Pixel 6 and 6 Pro (coming soon)

Enroll in Android Beta for Pixel

Alternatively, you can flash or manually install the latest 12L Beta build on your Pixel device. These approaches can be useful when you need more control over testing, such as for automated testing or regression testing.

Flash or manually install a system image

The recommended way to flash 12L to a Pixel device is to use the Android Flash Tool.

If you'd rather flash your device manually, you can get a 12L system image for your device on the Pixel downloads page. See the general instructions on the downloads page for how to manually flash a system image to your device. This approach can be useful when you need more control over testing, such as for automated testing or regression testing.

Get a generic system image (GSI)

Android Generic System Image (GSI) binaries are available to developers for app testing and validation purposes on supported Treble-compliant devices. You can use these images to address any compatibility issues with 12L as well as discover and report OS and framework issues before 12L is officially released.

See the GSI documentation for device requirements, flashing instructions, and information on choosing the right image type for your device. When you're ready to download a GSI binary, see the Downloads section on the 12L GSI page.

Next steps

Once you have the Android Emulator configured for 12L, here are some things to do next: