ASUS is updating its nearly two-year old gaming phone to Android 12. The ASUS ROG Phone 3, which launched in July 2020, is now receiving an Android 12 beta. As the device owners would recall, this wasn’t totally unexpected at all. The Taiwanese OEM promised to deliver the update to the phone in the second quarter of this year. Now, as the initial stepping stone towards the stable build, ASUS has started seeding the first Android 12 beta for the ROG Phone 3.

The version number of the new build is 31.0210.0210.160, which is a rather steep jump from the latest stable Android 11-based firmware (18.0410.2203.201). The beta update brings all the new features included in the stable Android 12 codebase, along with minor improvements to ASUS’ own ZenUI skin. For instance, the ASUS Safeguard module has been removed in favor of the emergency SOS option of Android. Additionally, several inbox ASUS apps are now updated with new features.

Screenshot courtesy: 4PDA user EnterPC

The complete update changelog is as follows:

  • Upgraded system to Android 12
  • Revamped Mobile Manager, Contacts, Phone, File Manager, Calculator, Clock, Gallery, Weather, Sound recorder, Settings, Data Transfer, Local backup, Setup wizard, System update apps
  • Updated the Console design in Armoury Crate
  • Adjusted Quick Settings panel, notification tray, and volume panel to Android 12 design
  • Added privacy dashboard, camera and microphone indicators, show clipboard access, approximate location access, and microphone access features
  • Replaced ASUS Safeguard with Android 12 Emergency SOS
  • Introduced a new widget page design in Launcher. Adjusted the position of the screenshot option and removed the hotseat app icons in the Overview page.
  • Removed the Quick Settings layout option from Display settings
  • ASUS Phone removed SIP calling support as Android 12 does not natively support SIP calling
  • Some 3rd party apps are not compatible with Android 12 yet

Although not mentioned in the changelog, the Beta 1 build comes with the latest May 2022 security patches.

ASUS ROG Phone 3 XDA Forums

Download Android 12 Beta 1 for the ROG Phone 3

You can sideload the Android 12 beta on your ROG Phone 3 using the incremental OTA‌ zip given below. After downloading, rename the file as UL-ASUS_I003_1-ASUS-31.0210.0210.160-1.1.5-user.zip and place it in the root of the internal storage. Next, reboot the device and check the OTA notification to perform the update.

Installing a beta software can be risky, so make sure to backup your data before you flash the build. It’s unclear when the stable update will arrive, but given the first beta is out now, we hopefully won’t have to wait for too long.