Android Police

Android 12's got some jiggle

DP3 picks up a new overscroll animation, and we're not 100% sure if we like it yet

Android 12 Developer Preview 3 landed this week with many smaller design tweaks, but there's one thing you'll instantly notice when you start using the new release. Things have become considerably more bouncy. Whether it's the notification drawer or the overscroll animations, Google is working on making things feel much more physical and realistic.

Left: DP2. Right: DP3.

The most noticeable change is probably the new overscroll animation when you reach the top or bottom of a screen and try to continue scrolling. Instead of the gray-ish overlay that expands from the end of the scrolling area, Developer Preview 3 introduces a new ripple-effect that subtly tears the whole content of the scrolling area, much like a rubber band you're extending.

The animation is available across the whole OS for all scrolling directions (left and right, too), with a few notable exceptions like websites in Chrome, the Gmail inbox, the Google Discover feed, and many places in Spotify. It even breaks some apps like Firefox, which consistently crashes whenever I scroll to the very top or bottom of a website.

Bounce bounce baby.

The new notification shade animation is a bit more subtle and only shows up when you pull down the shade, not as you scroll up and down (the shade has had a different overscroll animation than the rest of the system for a while). You'll notice that the panel extends a bit further down than it would have to after you open it, only to bounce back to its normal position right away.

Left: DP2. Right: DP3.

I personally like these new physics-based effects, but I think they still need polish. The notification drawer animation in particular feels a little too long and a bit unresponsive, which also goes for the overscroll effect. I'd like them to feel just a bit faster and more responsive to the touch.

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.