Behavior changes: Apps targeting Android 12

Like earlier releases, Android 12 includes behavior changes that may affect your app. The following behavior changes apply exclusively to apps that are targeting Android 12 or higher. If your app is targeting Android 12, you should modify your app to support these behaviors properly, where applicable.

Be sure to also review the list of behavior changes that affect all apps running on Android 12.

User experience

Picture-in-picture behavior improvements

Android 12 introduces behavior improvements for picture-in-picture (PiP) mode. See Picture-in-picture improvements for more information.

Custom notifications

Android 12 changes the appearance and behavior of fully custom notifications. Previously, custom notifications were able to use the entire notification area and provide their own layouts and styles. This resulted in anti-patterns that could confuse users or cause layout compatibility issues on different devices.

For apps targeting Android 12, notifications with custom content views will no longer use the full notification area; instead, the system applies a standard template. This template ensures that custom notifications have the same decoration as other notifications in all states, such as the notification's icon and expansion affordances (in the collapsed state) and the notification's icon, app name, and collapse affordance (in the expansion state). This behavior is nearly identical to the behavior of Notification.DecoratedCustomViewStyle.

In this way, Android 12 makes all notifications visually consistent and easy to scan, with a discoverable, familiar notification expansion for users.

The following illustration shows a custom notification in the standard template:

The following examples show how custom notifications would render in a collapsed and an expanded state:

The change in Android 12 affects apps that define custom subclasses of Notification.Style, or which use Notification.Builder’s methods setCustomContentView(RemoteViews), setCustomBigContentView(RemoteViews), and setCustomHeadsUpContentView(RemoteViews).

If your app is using fully custom notifications, we recommend testing with the new template as soon as possible.

1. Enable the custom notifications change:

   1. Change your app's targetSdkVersion to S to enable the new behavior.
   2. Recompile.
   3. Install your app on a device or emulator running Android 12.

2. Test all notifications that use custom views, ensuring they look as you expect in the shade. While testing, take these considerations into account and make the necessary adjustments:

   • The dimensions of custom views have changed. In general, the height afforded to custom notifications is less than before. In the collapsed state, the maximum height of the custom content has decreased from 106dp to 48dp. Also, there is less horizontal space.

   • All notifications are expandable for apps targeting Android 12. Typically, this means if you're using setCustomContentView, you'll also want to use setBigCustomContentView to make sure collapsed and expanded states are consistent.

   • To make sure that the "Heads Up" state looks as you expect, don’t forget to raise the importance of the notification channel to "HIGH" (Pops on screen).

Android App Links verification changes

On apps that target Android 12, the system makes several changes to how Android App Links are verified. These changes improve the reliability of the app-linking experience and provide more control to app developers and end users.

If you target Android 12 and rely on Android App Link verification to open web links in your app, update your Android App Links declarations to support the changed verification process. You can also manually invoke domain verification to test the reliability of your declarations.

Privacy

Motion sensors are rate-limited

To protect potentially sensitive information about users, if your app targets Android 12, the system places a limit of 200 Hz on the refresh rate of data from certain motion sensors and position sensors. This data includes values recorded by the device's accelerometer, gyroscope, and geomagnetic field sensor.

If your app targets Android 12 and needs to gather motion sensor data at a higher rate, you must declare the HIGH_SAMPLING_RATE_SENSORS permission. Otherwise, if your app tries to gather motion sensor data at a higher rate without declaring this permission, a SecurityException occurs.

Modern SameSite cookies in WebView

Android’s WebView component is based on Chromium, the open source project that powers Google’s Chrome browser. Over the last year, Chromium has introduced changes to the handling of third-party cookies to provide more security and privacy and offer users more transparency and control. These changes are already rolled out to many Chrome users, and starting with Android 12, the changes are now coming to WebView.

The SameSite attribute of a cookie controls whether it can be sent with any requests, or only with same-site requests. The base version of WebView in Android 12 (version 89.0.4385.0) includes the following privacy-protecting changes that improve the default handling of third-party cookies and help protect against unintended cross-site sharing:

• Cookies without a SameSite attribute are treated as SameSite=Lax.
• Cookies with SameSite=None must also specify the Secure attribute, meaning they require a secure context and should be sent over HTTPS.
• Links between HTTP and HTTPS versions of a site are now treated as cross-site requests, so cookies are not sent unless they are appropriately marked as SameSite=None; Secure.

For developers, the general guidance is to identify the cross-site cookie dependencies in your critical user flows and ensure that the SameSite attribute is explicitly set with the appropriate values where needed. You must explicitly specify the cookies that are allowed to work across websites or across same-site navigations that move from HTTP to HTTPS.

For complete guidance for web developers on these changes, see SameSite Cookies Explained and Schemeful SameSite.

Test SameSite behaviors in your app

If your app uses WebView, or if you manage a website or service that uses cookies, we recommend testing your flows on Android 12 WebView. If you find issues, you might need to update your cookies to support the new SameSite behaviors.

Watch for issues in logins and embedded content, as well as sign-in flows, purchasing, and other authentication flows where the user starts on an insecure page and transitions to a secure page.

To test an app with WebView, you must enable the new SameSite behaviors for the app that you want to test by completing either of the following steps:

• Manually enable SameSite behaviors on the test device by toggling the UI flag webview-enable-modern-cookie-same-site in the WebView devtools.

  This approach lets you test on any device running Android 5.0 (API level 21) or higher—including Android 12—and WebView version 89.0.4385.0 or higher.

• Compile your app to target Android 12 by targetSdkVersion.

  If you use this approach, you must use a device that runs Android 12 and WebView version 89.0.4385.0 or higher.

For information on remote debugging for WebView on Android, see Get Started with Remote Debugging Android Devices.

Other resources

For more information about the SameSite modern behaviors and rollout to Chrome and WebView, visit the Chromium SameSite Updates page. If you find a bug in WebView or Chromium, you can report it in the public Chromium issue tracker.

ADB backup restriction

To help protect private app data, Android 12 changes the default behavior of the adb backup command. For apps that target Android 12, when a user runs the adb backup command, app data is excluded from any other system data that is exported from the device.

If your testing or development workflows rely on app data using adb backup, you can now opt in to exporting your app's data by setting android:debuggable to true in your app's manifest file.

Security

Safer component exporting

We'd love to hear your feedback about this new requirement regarding exporting components. Take a short survey to tell us what you think. In particular, let us know what use cases in your app are affected by this change.

If your app targets Android 12 and contains activities, services, or broadcast receivers that use intent filters, you must explicitly declare the android:exported attribute for these app components.

The following code snippet shows an example of a service that contains an intent filter and is configured correctly for Android 12:

<service android:name="com.example.app.backgroundService"
         android:exported="false">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.example.app.START_BACKGROUND" />
    </intent-filter>
</service>

Messages in Android Studio

If your app contains an activity, service, or broadcast receiver that uses intent filters but doesn't declare android:exported, the following warning messages appear, depending on the version of Android Studio that you use:

Android Studio 2020.3.1 Canary 11 or later

The following messages appear:

1. The following lint warning appears in your manifest file:

   When using intent filters, please specify android:exported as well
   

2. When you attempt to compile your app, the following build error message appears:

   Manifest merger failed : Apps targeting Android 12 and higher are required \
   to specify an explicit value for android:exported when the corresponding \
   component has an intent filter defined.
   

Older versions of Android Studio

If you attempt to install the app, Logcat displays the following error message:

Installation did not succeed.
The application could not be installed: INSTALL_FAILED_VERIFICATION_FAILURE
List of apks:
[0] '.../build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk'
Installation failed due to: 'null'

Pending intents mutability

We'd love to hear your feedback about this new requirement regarding pending intents. Take a short survey to tell us what you think. In particular, let us know what use cases in your app are affected by this change.

If your app targets Android 12, you must specify the mutability of each PendingIntent object that your app creates. This additional requirement improves your app's security.

To declare that a given PendingIntent object is mutable or immutable, use the PendingIntent.FLAG_MUTABLE or PendingIntent.FLAG_IMMUTABLE flag, respectively. If your app attempts to create a PendingIntent object without setting either mutability flag, the system throws an IllegalArgumentException, and the following message appears in Logcat:

PACKAGE_NAME: Targeting S+ (version 10000 and above) requires that one of \
FLAG_IMMUTABLE or FLAG_MUTABLE be specified when creating a PendingIntent.

Strongly consider using FLAG_IMMUTABLE, only use FLAG_MUTABLE if \
some functionality depends on the PendingIntent being mutable, e.g. if \
it needs to be used with inline replies or bubbles.

Create immutable pending intents whenever possible

In most cases, your app should create immutable PendingIntent objects, as shown in the following code snippet. If a PendingIntent object is immutable, then an app cannot modify the intent to adjust the result of invoking the intent.

val pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(applicationContext,
        REQUEST_CODE, intent,
        /* flags */ PendingIntent.FLAG_IMMUTABLE)

PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(getApplicationContext(),
        REQUEST_CODE, intent,
        /* flags */ PendingIntent.FLAG_IMMUTABLE);

However, certain apps need to create mutable PendingIntent objects instead:

• A direct reply action in a notification requires a change to the clip data in the PendingIntent object that's associated with the reply. Usually, you request this change by passing FILL_IN_CLIP_DATA as a flag to the fillIn() method.
• If your app places a conversation in a bubble using a PendingIntent, the intent should be mutable so that the system can apply the correct flags, such as FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK and FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_DOCUMENT.

If your app creates a mutable PendingIntent object, it's strongly recommended that you use an explicit intent and fill in the ComponentName. That way, whenever another app invokes the PendingIntent and passes control back to your app, the same component in your app always starts.

Test the pending intent mutability change

To determine whether your app is missing mutability declarations, look for the following lint warning in Android Studio:

Warning: Missing PendingIntent mutability flag [UnspecifiedImmutableFlag]

During the Developer Preview, you can disable this system behavior for testing purposes by turning off the PENDING_INTENT_EXPLICIT_MUTABILITY_REQUIRED app compatibility flag.

Nested intent launches

To improve platform security, Android 12 provides a debugging feature that warns you if your app performs an unsafe launch of a nested intent. A nested intent is an intent that is passed as an extra in another intent. If your app performs both of the following actions, a StrictMode violation occurs.

1. Your app unparcels a nested intent from the extras of a delivered intent.
2. Your app immediately starts an app component using that nested intent, such as passing the intent into startActivity(), startService(), or bindService().

Configure your app to detect unsafe launches of nested intents

To check for unsafe launches of nested intents in your app, call detectUnsafeIntentLaunch() when you configure your VmPolicy, as shown in the following code snippet. If your app detects a StrictMode violation, you might want to stop app execution to protect potentially sensitive information.

fun onCreate() {
    StrictMode.setVmPolicy(VmPolicy.Builder()
        // Other StrictMode checks that you've previously added.
        // ...
        .detectUnsafeIntentLaunch()
        .penaltyLog()
        // Consider also adding penaltyDeath()
        .build())
}

protected void onCreate() {
    StrictMode.setVmPolicy(new VmPolicy.Builder()
        // Other StrictMode checks that you've previously added.
        // ...
        .detectUnsafeIntentLaunch()
        .penaltyLog()
        // Consider also adding penaltyDeath()
        .build());
}

Use intents more responsibly

Your app might launch nested intents to navigate between components inside of your app, or to perform an action on behalf of another app. To minimize the chance of encountering a StrictMode violation in either situation, do the following:

• Internal launch of nested intent: Make sure that these components aren't exported.

• Cross-app launch of nested intent: Use a PendingIntent instead of a nested intent. That way, when the PendingIntent is unparceled out of its containing Intent, an app component can launch the PendingIntent using the identity of the calling process. This configuration allows a provider app to send a callback to any component, including a non-exported component, of the calling app.

  For more details on how to identify this situation and make changes to your app, read the blog post about Android Nesting Intents on Medium.

Performance

Foreground service launch restrictions

Apps that target Android 12 can no longer start foreground services while running in the background, except for a few special cases. If an app attempts to start a foreground service while running in the background, an exception occurs (except for the few special cases). Consider using WorkManager to schedule and start work while your app runs in the background.

To learn more about how your app is affected, and how you can update your app based on these changes, read the guide about foreground service launch restrictions. You can also look through the WorkManagerSample on GitHub.

Exact alarm permission

To encourage apps to conserve system resources, apps that target Android 12 must have the SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM permission in order to set exact alarms. If your app attempts to use APIs that set exact alarms but isn't granted the permission, a SecurityException occurs.

Consider whether your app's use case absolutely requires exact alarms, such as one of the situations described in the acceptable use cases section. To perform longer work, or work that requires network access, use WorkManager or JobScheduler. To perform work while the device is in Doze, create an inexact alarm, and start a job from the alarm.

Exact alarms and inexact alarms

Your app sets an exact alarm when it calls methods such as the following:

• setAlarmClock()
• setExact()
• setExactAndAllowWhileIdle()

In contrast, you set inexact alarms when you call methods such as the following:

• setInexactRepeating()
• setAndAllowWhileIdle()
• setWindow()

Acceptable use cases for this permission

Your app should use exact alarms, and declare the associated permission, only if users depend on the exact timing of an alarm or action that they set using your app, such as in the following situations:

• Your app is an alarm clock app or a timer app.
• Your app allows users to schedule precisely-timed actions, such as tasks and event notifications.

Android 12 considers exact alarms to be critical, time-sensitive interruptions. For this reason, exact alarms aren't affected by the new foreground service launch restrictions.

Check whether your app has the permission

To check whether the user has granted the new permission to your app, call canScheduleExactAlarms(). If necessary, you can send users to the Special app access screen in system settings, where users can grant the Alarms and reminders access to your app. To do so, invoke an intent that includes the ACTION_REQUEST_SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM intent action.

Disable the behavior change

To disable the behavior change for testing purposes, do one of the following:

• In the Developer options setting screen, select App Compatibility Changes. On the screen that appears, tap on your app's name, then turn off the REQUIRE_EXACT_ALARM_PERMISSION radio button.

• In a terminal window on your development machine, run the following command:

  adb shell am compat disable REQUIRE_EXACT_ALARM_PERMISSION PACKAGE_NAME
  

Notification trampoline restrictions

We'd love to hear your feedback about these changes to notification trampoline behavior. Take a short survey to tell us what you think. In particular, let us know what use cases in your app are affected by this change.

When users interact with notifications, some apps respond to notification taps by launching an app component that eventually starts the activity that the user finally sees and interacts with. This app component is known as a notification trampoline.

To improve app performance and UX, apps that target Android 12 cannot start activities from services or broadcast receivers that are used as notification trampolines. In other words, after the user taps on a notification, or an action button within the notification, your app cannot call startActivity() inside of a service or broadcast receiver.

When your app tries to start an activity from a service or broadcast receiver that acts as a notification trampoline, the system prevents the activity from starting, and the following message appears in Logcat:

Indirect notification activity start (trampoline) from PACKAGE_NAME, \
this should be avoided for performance reasons.

Identify which app components act as notification trampolines

When testing your app, after you tap on a notification, you can identify which service or broadcast receiver acted as the notification trampoline in your app. To do so, look at output of the following terminal command:

adb shell dumpsys activity service \
  com.android.systemui/.dump.SystemUIAuxiliaryDumpService

A section of the output includes the text "NotifInteractionLog". This section contains the information that's necessary to identify the component that starts as the result of a notification tap.

Update your app

If your app starts an activity from a service or broadcast receiver that acts as a notification trampoline, complete the following migration steps:

1. Create a PendingIntent object that is associated with the activity that users see after they tap on the notification.
2. Use the PendingIntent object that you created in the previous step as part of building your notification.

To identify the origin of the activity, in order to perform logging for example, use extras when posting the notification. For centralized logging, use ActivityLifecycleCallbacks or Jetpack lifecycle observers.

Toggle the behavior

When testing your app during the Developer Preview, you can enable and disable this restriction using the NOTIFICATION_TRAMPOLINE_BLOCK app compatibility flag.

Backup and restore

Android 12 changes how backup and restore works in apps that run on and target Android 12 or higher. For more information, see Changes in backup and restore.

Connectivity

Enable screen off for NFC payments

In apps that target Android 12 and higher, you can enable NFC payments without the device's screen on by setting requireDeviceScreenOn to false. For more information about NFC payments with screen off or locked, see Screen off and lock-screen behavior.

Vendor libraries

Vendor-supplied native shared libraries

Non-NDK native shared libraries that are provided by silicon vendors or device manufacturers are not accessible by default if the app is targeting Android 12 or higher. The libraries are accessible only when they are explicitly requested using the <uses-native-library> tag.

If the app is targeting Android 11 or lower, the <uses-native-library> tag is not required. In that case, any native shared library is accessible regardless of whether it is an NDK library.

Updated non-SDK restrictions

Android 12 includes updated lists of restricted non-SDK interfaces based on collaboration with Android developers and the latest internal testing. Whenever possible, we make sure that public alternatives are available before we restrict non-SDK interfaces.

If your app does not target Android 12, some of these changes might not immediately affect you. However, while you can currently use some non-SDK interfaces (depending on your app's target API level), using any non-SDK method or field always carries a high risk of breaking your app.

If you are unsure if your app uses non-SDK interfaces, you can test your app to find out. If your app relies on non-SDK interfaces, you should begin planning a migration to SDK alternatives. Nevertheless, we understand that some apps have valid use cases for using non-SDK interfaces. If you cannot find an alternative to using a non-SDK interface for a feature in your app, you should request a new public API.

To learn more about the changes in this release of Android, see Updates to non-SDK interface restrictions in Android 12. To learn more about non-SDK interfaces generally, see Restrictions on non-SDK interfaces.