We're all excited for the new design coming with Android 12, but Google's also implementing a ton of changes under the hood as well. User safety is more important than ever these days, and the new Privacy Dashboard should help keep you informed about where and when your data is being accessed. Google is also adding a new toast message any time an app accesses copied text, though it's not active in Android just yet.

The system clipboard gained protections from background applications beginning in Android 10, but this latest update to your phone's security takes it a step further. When a foreground application reaches for your keyboard's copied data, you'll receive a new toast message with both app names displayed. This way, if a misbehaving app is trying to copy data from your device, you'll know as soon as it happens. You can check out a demo in the "What's new in Android" keynote below.

If this new toast looks familiar, it means you've probably used an iPhone recently. iOS 14 added similar notifications to its clipboard last fall, alerting users whenever an application pasted text. It's a smart, discreet way to keep users alert, and it's good to see Google offering its users a similar level of information as Apple.

The latest update to Google's mobile OS also adds app icons to its toast messages to keep users from being fooled by fake alerts. It's just another way that mobile security and privacy are being improved on Android. These clipboard alerts aren't active in yesterday's beta yet, but they'll be included in Beta 2.

UPDATE: 2021/05/19 10:39am PDT BY WILL SATTELBERG

Not available until beta 2

Updated to clarify that these clipboard toast messages won't be enabled until Beta 2.