Android 12 Beta 5: Get A Load Of This Material You Clock

Android 12 beta 5 brings in a (seemingly) very small number of enhancements, such as the new Google Clock 7.0 version. You may not think of the Google Clock app as something very noteworthy. And quite honestly that’s understandable. It’s just a clock app. But in truth it is genuinely more than that. Especially now.

Thanks to the inclusion of the new Material You design, which includes everything from fresh new colors in the UI to a snazzy new set of widgets, the clock is about to get some much needed attention from users. As it should.

But it’s not just the widgets and the new colors. Which are picked from the color palette within your phone’s currently used theme. The clock app also has tantalizing new animations for the icons as you switch between the tabs in the bottom nav bar.

One might call it a small feast for the eyes. Teasing you with minor visual touches that serve no function, but make the experience better all the same.

Get a load of these new Google Clock widgets in Android 12

Whether you’re new to widgets or not, if you’re using them on Android 12, you’re going to want to consider the widgets for the built-in Google Clock app. They’re a visual treat and offer up a handful of options with different designs.

As noted, they also now pick colors right out of your phone’s current theme. Changing dynamically based on the theme that was applied to match the wallpaper you use. If you like things in your device setup to match in every way possible, these new widgets do a good job of assisting that.

They also come in fun shapes, and as all widgets they can be appropriately resized to fit your layout. Check out some of the screenshots to see what you’re missing.

Animations, animations everywhere

The animations mentioned above aren’t limited to the icons in the app UI’s bottom bar. Google also applied a new animation to the app for when you close it out. But this only appears if you have the Clock widget on your homescreen.

If that’s the case for you, then you’ll see the app shrink down and transition into the app widget. Again, this does nothing to serve any functional purposes. But it looks really nice. And sometimes these small design features make all the difference. There’s also a new UI alarm that lets you slide your finger across a bar at the bottom of the alarm screen when one goes off. You slide right to stop the alarm and left to snooze it.

Overall, the clock changes are a welcomed addition that should easily sway some people to switch from third party apps.