Android 12 is now officially out, and it brings along a plethora of new features and improvements. From the biggest UI overhaul in years and improved privacy to a wallpaper-based theming system and redesigned widgets, the latest version of Android is one of the most exciting releases in recent years. But besides all these upgrades and improvements, Android 12 also drops one important feature: the ability to control the volume of cast devices using your phone's volume keys. While it wasn't initially known why Google decided to quietly remove the feature without any public documentation, the company has now shed some more light on the matter.

Google says it temporally disabled the volume key event for remote (cast) playbacks in Android 12 and will re-enable it in Android 12L. As for why the company disabled the functionality in the first place, Google said it was due to "a legal issue."

"There was a legal issue that I cannot share in [a] public place. I don't think there is a workaround in Android 12, and still working on it," said a Googler in a comment on the Google IssueTracker.

As things stand, Android 12 doesn't allow you to control the volume of a cast session using your phone's volume keys on any screen. For example, if you open up Spotify and start casting a song to your Google Nest Audio speaker, pressing your phone's volume keys won't change the speaker volume — instead, it now just changes your phone's media volume. You will have to open the Spotify app every time you want to adjust the volume.

Unfortunately, there's no workaround to override or bypass this behavior. We'll have to wait for Android 12L for Google to revert the change.