In the days before most smartphones and tablets could boot up in a few seconds, Android devices often had elaborate and fun boot animations, and the modding community created thousands of additional custom animations that could be applied to rooted/ROMed devices. These days, most phones only show a simple logo during the boot process, but the upcoming release of Android 12L is adding a bit of flair to the startup process again.

One of the main new features in Android 12 (not 12L) is the custom color theme system, code-named "monet," which is an integral component of Material You. Android picks a palette of colors based on your wallpaper choice, which is then used across any applications that support Material You theming. Google is slowly rolling out Material You support to its applications, including Drive, Translate, and the Play Store.

Android 12L is expanding this functionality to the boot screen — the Google logo's color now matches the device theme. Mishaal Rahman shared demo videos (two of which are embedded above) in a series of tweets, indicating how different wallpapers change the shades used in the Google logo. However, it's unclear if any devices outside of Pixels will use this functionality, since most (if not all) manufacturers replace Google's logo with a custom animation or image.

This is only one small addition in Android 12L, which was announced on Wednesday and focuses on improvements for tablets, foldables, and Chrome OS devices. The update includes new interface designs for devices with large screens, such as a two-pane notification panel, a taskbar with gesture controls, and more system applications with optimized layouts. The first Developer Preview is already available in the Android Studio emulator, and a final update is expected to ship sometime in the first quarter of 2022.