The Android 12 beta has been released after months of testing. This means that it is more stable and is ready to be used as a daily driver. Android 12 also includes a significant change in the design, Material You. It also comes with some new privacy features that may be of use. You can get the public Android 12 beta for Pixel phones, along with top Android phones from ASUS, OPPO and TCL. This guide will show you how to install the Android 12 beta on your Pixel phone or one of the 15 participating third-party phones.Enrolling in the Android Beta Program is the easiest and most straightforward way to obtain the Android 12 beta. Visit the Android Beta portal to sign up for the beta. Google will send an over-the air update to your tablet or phone. Depending on when it is, your phone may receive the latest beta, then an OTA to the final version or just the final version. Go to the Android Beta Program portal for your Pixel phone. Log in to your Google account linked with this phone. Scroll down to "Your eligible devices". Click on the device that you wish to join the Beta program, and then tap Opt in. Follow the prompts to accept the over the air download. How do I cancel my participation in the beta program? You can opt out of the beta program easily by visiting the same Android Beta portal where you signed up, scrolling down to your device and clicking Opt-out. Be aware that opting out will delete all data from your phone. You can also opt out at any time to go back to the stable version of Android. All data on your phone that is running beta Android will be erased if you choose to opt out. You can choose to remain enrolled for the duration of the program and will receive an update to the stable version of Android 11. Your device won't be erased. Use the Android Flash Tool to install Android 12Source: Daniel Bader / Android CentralTo install Android 12 beta on your phone, you can also use the Android Flash Tool (a web-based version the ADB developer tool). Go to the Android Flash Tool website. Allow the site access ADB from your browser. Turn on Developer Mode in your phone. In the Developer Settings, enable USB Debugging. Enable OEM Unlocking on your device. Connect your phone to the USB port of your computer. Follow the steps to install the beta. Flash an OTA via the bootloader to install Android 12 betaSource: Andrew Martonik / Android CentralYou can flash Android 12 beta to a Pixel by using an OTA factory photo. You will need an Android 11 version installed on your Pixel phone to enable the OTA update. You cannot install the Android 12 beta as a standalone, full-flash factory image. Sideloading the Android 12 OTA Images to your Phone If you are interested in trying Android 12 on your Pixel, but don't want your data to be lost, sideloading the entire OTA image is the best choice. This will install Android 12 on top of the current Android 11 build, but it will not affect your data. Before you do this, ensure that there are no OTA updates on your Pixel. You can check for pending updates by going to Settings > About phone > Systems updates. Make sure that USB debugging is enabled on your phone. Go to the Android 12 OTA Images page and download the appropriate build for your Pixel. You will need ADB to sideload the build onto your Pixel. I love Universal ADB Drivers. After the OTA image is downloaded and installed on your Windows computer, you can begin sideloading it. First, you will need to turn on your phone's recovery mode. To enter the bootloader menu, power off your phone and hold the Power and Volume buttons for a while. Then select the recovery option by pressing the Volume Down key. You will see the Android mascot lying face down, with an exclamation point over it. To enter recovery mode, hold down the Power button and then press Volume Up. Next, use the Volume Up button to navigate to the option "Apply update from ADB" and then confirm your selection by pressing the Power key once more. Now, you can sideload the OTA file. You must confirm that your phone is able to connect to your computer. To verify, plug your Pixel into the computer and run the command adb device. You will see your phone's serial numbers and sideload beside it. We can now flash the OTA builds. To do this, just run the following command in CMD: adbsideload ota_file.zip. Here you will need to replace ota_file.zip by the filename for the OTA version that your device uses. I'm installing Android 12 on a Pixel 3 XL, so I entered the following: adb sideload crosshatch-ota-spp1.210122.020.a3-d0b7a955.zip into CMD. This will make it work. Make sure the OTA file is located in the same directory and the CMD path. After the OTA file has been transferred to your phone it should be returned to the recovery menu. To restart your phone, navigate to Reboot system now. Your phone will automatically update to Android 12 after the OTA update is completed. What's next for Android 12?Source: GoogleWe are currently on Android 12 beta 4 as of August 11, 2021. This means that the software update has achieved Platform Stability status, and the APIs have now been finalized. Google has promised to release Android 12 beta 4 for Pixel phones in September 2021. This means that there is still time for another beta release before the stable release.
