Google always releases a public beta of its latest Android version at the annual I/O developers' conference. Sticking with tradition, the company today announced the launch of the first public Android 12 beta.
The beta firmware was previously available only on the company's Pixel phones. In recent years, it has extended that privilege to other manufacturers. However, in case you were wondering, the Samsung Android 12 beta isn't available today.
Samsung Android 12 beta will come with One UI 4.0
Starting today, anyone with a Google Pixel 3 and up can download the first public Android 12 beta. Select devices from Xiaomi, Vivo, TCL, Techno, Sharp, Realme, Oppo, Asus, Lenovo, OnePlus and ZTE are also eligible.
You'll notice that there's one major company missing from the list: Samsung. Nothing was said about the Samsung Android 12 beta today. So while you may have been excited by all of the new Android 12 improvements shown today, it will be some time before you can experience it for yourself.
There's a reason why the public beta isn't open to Samsung devices. Samsung runs its own beta program. It launches a new One UI iteration with every major Android release. So we'll only get the chance to try out Google's new software when Samsung launches the One UI 4.0 beta.
Who knows when that's going to be out. Samsung hasn't even mentioned it at all. If history is any indication, we may have to wait for a few months. The Android 11 One UI 3.0 public beta was opened up in October last year. It arrived a month after the stable Android 11 firmware was released by Google!
It's likely going to be a similar situation this year. One UI 3.5 is the next iteration of Samsung's custom software. It will ship with the new foldable smartphones coming later this year. Android 12 won't be a part of that release. So it may yet take a few months before we can get our hands on the Samsung Android 12 beta.
