Android 12 new features: making URL sharing easier

Compared with the previous two Beta versions, the recently released Android 12 Beta 3 introduces a lot of changes and improvements. Although Google lists the major user-oriented changes in Beta 3 in detail in the blog, many detailed changes are not fully included. According to foreign media XDA, Android 12 introduced a very useful feature-recent URL sharing.

This feature allows you to quickly copy links in recent app overviews. In fact, as early as when Beta 3 was released, XDA editors noticed this feature, but it was not clear how it worked at the time. Now Google has shared developer documentation that explains this feature in detail.

According to the official documentation, the recent URL sharing feature can be enabled by any application that provides a web user interface and overrides the onProvideAssistContent method of the activity class. This method is used to provide structured information about the current foreground content to the assistant application. Basically, the application can tell the assistant that the current foreground content is loaded from a specific web page. In Android 12, the URL is extracted and displayed to the user, allowing them to easily copy it from the recent app overview.

As you can see in the screenshot, the URL appears as an icon in the upper right corner of the app card in the recent apps overview. You can tap it to see the full URL and then copy or share it from the recent apps overview. Tapping the button will also bring up contact suggestions at the bottom to help you share the URL on the same screen.

Currently, if you want to copy a link from Google Chrome and share it with a friend, you have to tap the address bar, then tap the Copy button, switch to your messaging app of choice, and then paste the URL there before hitting Send. Alternatively, you can tap the address bar, then tap the Share button, select the app you want to share the link with from the share sheet, and then select the contact you want to share with. In both cases, it's a pretty lengthy process.

The Recent URL sharing feature aims to greatly simplify this process, letting you swipe up to open the recent apps overview and then copy or share the link on the same screen.