Android 12 Beta 2 Made Quick Settings Even More Powerful With New Tiles

The Quick Settings area in Android has been one of its most powerful areas for a number of years. There’s a reason in our “First 10 Things” videos that we always recommend that you customize this, especially the first few settings to keep them handy. In the latest Android 12 Beta 2, Google has tweaked things further and added a few sweet new tiles to choose from.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the Quick Settings tiles now pull from your wallpaper, so mine are pink here because of my red wallpaper. More on that here. You’ll then probably notice that you only have access to four settings tiles in the first swipe, which then expands to eight tiles with a second. You still have multiple pages of these to the right if you need them,

With the 2nd swipe and the Quick Settings area fully revealed, with brightness slider at the top, you should also now notice that a power button has joined at the bottom. This is there in situations where you may have turned on Google Assistant with a long-press of the physical power button.

In this Android 12 Beta 2, Google has moved the Home controls area from the power button menu into its own Quick Settings tile. It’s labeled as “Device control” and it’ll bring up your smart home controls with a single tap. There is a new Google Pay tile as well. For privacy-minded folks, two new tiles to turn off or on camera and microphone access are available.

Overall, I really like the new Quick Settings area, even if we did get a reduction in tiles/shortcuts in the first swipe down to just four. I like that the home, power, and Google Pay shortcuts have been added. The whole experience feels much more refined now.