This year Android 12 will come up with a bunch of new features, major improvements, and a radical design change than its predecessors. It seems that everything is going well for Android 12 but there was a lack of one feature but not anymore. Google is currently rolling out the Game Optimization feature on Android 12. Mobile gaming has become one of the most important parts among users for the last couple of years and it’s getting bigger.
Google is gearing up to showcase new gaming features for Android 12 at the Google for Games Developer Summit. Meanwhile, the ‘play as you download’ feature also allows users to get into the game without downloading bigger files or actually running them in the background. It seems that Android 12 also includes the Game Dashboard option that offers quick access to useful tools or settings, widgets for streaming to YouTube Live, showing achievements from Google Play Games, switching between performance profiles, and more.
It also includes the Game Optimization option in the main Settings menu of the Android 12 running device. Android 12’s Game Mode API brings the performance changing option by switching profiles quite easily for any game. Now, the first games to support mentioned API are starting to roll out. So, users can switch between ‘Standard’, ‘Performance’, and ‘Battery Saver’ options according to their preference.
The default settings will be set to ‘Performance’ or ‘Battery Saver’ while the performance mode will increase the frame rate of the gameplay and the battery saver will reduce frame rates to save battery juice. But keep in mind that changing the performance profile will restart the game to change effects. Additionally, the Game Optimization option will let you know which games are supported for the game mode and which aren’t by simply indicating ‘not available for this game’.
It means that a specific game hasn’t added support for the Game Mode API on Android 12 yet. In some cases, the game may only support the ‘Performance’ or ‘Battery Saver’ mode once at a time, not both together such as Minecraft as of now on some devices. Yes! Minecraft, Snipper 3D, Temple Run 2 games are supported by the Game Mode API on Android 12.
You can easily enable this Game Dashboard or Game Optimization feature right now. Go to Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb > Schedules > Tap on the cog icon for the ‘Gaming’ schedule. This will allow you access to the ‘Game Settings’ menu, where you can turn on the Game Dashboard shortcut. However, there is no confirmation whether other OEM devices running on Android 12 will also have this feature or not.
Google also said the game dashboard will only be available on “select devices” running Android 12, but we don’t know if phones from other OEMs will support the feature. Most importantly, it’s yet to know whether the Game Mode API is really working well and worth its inclusion on Android 12 or not.
