Many phones with notches or camera holes have options to 'hide' the cutout, usually by filling in the space around it with a black background and/or shifting the status bar down. Google offered the feature on the Pixel 3 XL, and now it's coming to the newer Pixel 5.

The first Android 12 beta adds a new option for the Pixel 5 that fills in the status bar with a black background, effectively hiding the front-facing camera. Once you enable Android's developer settings (keep tapping on the 'Build number' in the About page until you see "you are now a developer"), the option can be found at Settings > System > Advanced > Developer options > Display cutout.

It's a bit strange that the option wasn't available when the Pixel 5 launched, especially when Google's Pixel 3 XL (and possibly other notched Pixel phones) had the setting from the beginning. However, unlike the setting on the 3 XL, the status bar is not shifted downwards.

For more about the Android 12 launch, check out our announcement post detailing what's new here. If you want to install the developer preview on your own device, find out how in our Android 12 download guide.