The 2 XL reached its update end of life in December last year, a couple of months after Google released Android 11. While they're a bit long in the tooth now, these phones are still good enough for basic day-to-day use. If you are rocking a Pixel 2 XL and are looking to try Android 12, you can do so now, provided you are willing to take things into your own hands. The first Android 12-based custom ROM has been released for the retired Pixel, bringing with it all the major new features like Material You, redesigned Quick Settings panel, new system animations, and privacy enhancements.

While you can always install the GSI build of Android 12 on your Pixel, the experience is not stable enough for daily use as it's primarily meant for developers. This is where an unofficial build of ProtonAOSP comes in as it offers Pixel 2 XL owners a relatively stable way to try the latest Android release on aging hardware. For now, the unofficial ProtonAOSP Android 12 ROM is only available for the Pixel 2 XL, with a build for its smaller sibling coming soon.

Installing the unofficial ProtonAOSP's Android 12 release is different from other ROMs as it is available as a factory image (see how over at XDA Developers). You'll need to unlock the bootloader on your Pixel 2 and use the bundled flash-all script to install the ROM. If the installation fails, you may need to repartition and allocate more storage to various system partitions.

If you do install the unofficial ProtonAOSP ROM on your Pixel 2 XL, be prepared to run into some bugs and occasional performance issues. The major ones are non-functional Wi-Fi and Permissive SELinux permission in the current build. There are likely other issues as well that haven't been reported yet. Nonetheless, if you want to try out Android 12 on your Pixel 2 XL, this is your best bet right now.