The 2020 iteration of the Android OS — referred to as Android 11 — is stable and official! Anyone who owns a supported Google Pixel device should have already got the update. The remake should also arrive soon on devices from other manufacturers, including OnePlus, Xiaomi, Realme, and more.
For better or worse, Android 11 looks and feels very almost like Android 10. As such, you would possibly not notice many differences once you first boot it up. That’s where this useful guide comes in! Below, you’ll find over a dozen new features that make this latest version of the OS the simplest yet.
Keep in mind that this list doesn’t cover every new feature. There are many smaller updates also as new features geared more towards developers rather than the overall user. What’s listed here are the most important changes that each user should realize .
Conversation Notifications
In Android 10, the notification drawer contains all of your notifications during a seemingly-haphazard list. Certain apps tend to urge prioritized and shot to the highest of the list, but there doesn’t appear to be any specific reason why. Meanwhile, lower-priority notifications get moved right down to the silent section, which doesn’t send any alerts.
In Android 11, that system changes. There are now three notification categories: Conversations, Alerting, and Silent. The Conversations section, quite obviously, houses all of your conversations. this is able to mean any app where you're directly communicating with somebody else , including text messages and chat apps. it might also apply to direct messages within other apps, like Instagram.
You can also prioritize conversations and apps within this section. this is able to allow you to offer a better priority to messages from your mom than messages from your distant cousin, for instance . the entire point is to form sure that you simply never miss notifications associated with your important daily interactions.
Meanwhile, the Alerting and Silent sections act as they need before in Android 10. you'll also easily silence notifications from certain apps, which might push all future notifications to the Silent section. With Android 11, you now have more control over notifications than you ever had previously.
Notification History
We’ve all done it: a notification comes through and you instinctively swipe it away. Later on, you think, “Hey, I probably shouldn’t have done that,” but by then it’s too late. The notification is gone.
Not so in Android 11! a replacement feature gives you the choice of saving every single notification that landed on your phone over the past 24 hours. you'll check the running list, find the notification you mistakenly swiped, and see what you missed.
Now you'll find that notification you mistakenly swiped away once you awakened .
Unfortunately, this new notification history feature isn't on by default. you would like to travel to Settings > Apps & notifications > Notifications > Notification history. Once you’re there, you'll toggle the feature on. If it’s already on, you'll view your notification history therein same section. confine mind, though, that it won’t start saving notifications until the feature is on, so you can’t turn it on and find notifications you swiped away earlier that day.
An interesting side-effect of this Android 11 feature is that history will show you each single notification that goes through your phone, even totally silent ones that never make it to the shade. this is often an excellent tool to ascertain if there are apps you don’t use much hogging up system resources.
Chat Bubbles in Android 11
Are you sensing a topic here? Google has designed Android 11 to be all about communication, therefore the biggest new features all relate to notifications, chat apps, and other conversation-related systems.
Chat bubbles actually first appeared in Android 10. However, for whatever reason, Google didn’t prioritize them and that they faded into the background when the stable version of the OS launched. Now, though, chat bubbles are here in Android 11 and taking center stage.
If you’ve ever used Facebook Messenger on Android, you already skills chat bubbles work. With Messenger, a “chat head” appears on your phone that overlays on top of just about every other app. a fast tap of the icon launches the chat then you'll minimize the chat back to an icon. through with the conversation? you'll remove the chat head until subsequent conversation starts.
This is exactly how the system-wide bubble feature works, with the sole major difference being that it can work for any chat app, not just Messenger or other apps that have an identical design.
Android 11 Screen Recorder
There are many apps on the Google Play Store which will record your phone’s screen. thereupon in mind, a native screen recorder within Android 11 might sound a touch late to the party, but it’s still exciting. After all, this is often now one less app you’ll got to download.
It's a bit late to the party, but this new screen recording feature may be a welcome addition.
The screen recorder function lives within the Quick Settings tiles. You tap the Screen Record feature which provides you a couple of options before you begin recording. for instance , you'll choose whether or not your screen-taps should even be recorded and whether the phone should capture audio, too.
The whole thing is extremely simplistic, but it gets the work done. If you would like a more fully-featured screen recorder, you'll always persist with your favorite third-party app. for many people, though, this native app should be just fine.
Media Controls
If you're playing music on your Android 10 phone, a music player appears at the highest of your notifications drawer. Of course, with Android 11, that section of the drawer is now reserved for conversations, therefore the media player needed to maneuver . Google decided to maneuver it one rung up to the fast Settings section.
This makes far more sense since the media controller isn’t really a notification — it’s a tool or maybe a mini-app.
When you swipe down your notification drawer, the media controller are going to be pretty small. it'll show you the app it’s associated with , cover art, basic controls, and on which system the media is playing. If you pull down again on the drawer, the alert expands and shows the knowledge you see within the image above.
In a nice touch, you'll tap on the playback system (“Phone speaker” within the image above) and quickly push the audio or video bent a special system. this may make it incredibly easy to modify from your phone speaker to your Bluetooth headphones, for instance .
Don’t want the player up there anymore? you'll swipe it away a bit like you wont to . you'll also tweak Android 11’s settings in order that the player automatically vanishes once you have stopped taking note of music (or stay there all the time, it’s up to you!).
Smart Device Controls
More and more people are incorporating some sort of smart home tech in their lives. In response to the present growing trend, Google added a replacement section in Android 11 that permits you to simply control your various devices without having to open an app.
Related: Smart home devices: the simplest products you'll buy
You can hold down the facility button to launch the new tool. At the highest , you’ll find the standard power features, but underneath, you’ll see tons more options. There’s a Google Pay shortcut that permits you to quickly choose which payment method you would like your next contactless transaction to use. thereunder , you’ll see a bunch of buttons connected to your various smart home products.
Android 11 will pre-populate this field with six of your devices, but you'll add/remove devices as you see fit. Whichever devices you agree on, you'll tap them to show lights on or off, check your security cameras, unlock your front entrance , etc. No more opening three separate apps to try to to all those things!
One-time permissions and auto-reset
It’s no secret that Google has faced some hefty accusations of negligence over the past few years associated with the privacy and security of its users. Thankfully, Android 11 now gives more control over privacy and security to users than ever before.
The star feature of this new initiative is one-time permissions. once you first install an app, Android 10 will ask you if you would like to grant an app permissions all the time, only you’re using the app, or not in the least . This was an enormous breakthrough , but Android 11 gives the user even more control by allowing them to offer permissions just for that specific session.
Android 11 gives plenty of control to the user when it involves privacy and security.
If a user gives permission for the session, once they close the app, Android will revoke that permission. If a user wants to grant permission whenever they use the app, that option remains there, but an choice to grant permission all the time won’t be available for tons of apps. this may make things much safer for users and make it far more difficult for sneaky apps to gather the knowledge you would possibly not want them to gather .
Similarly, Android 11 will now “auto-reset” apps you haven’t utilized in a short time . If you granted location data permissions to an app that you simply haven’t opened during a while , Android will now revoke all permissions. Next time you open the app, you’ll got to approve those permissions again. If you never open the app, though, your data is safe.
Dark Theme Scheduling
It was pretty exciting when Google finally introduced a native dark mode to Android 10. However, it had been fairly simplistic: it had been either on or off. Meanwhile, Android skins from other manufacturers allow users to regulate when and why dark mode should be activated.
With Android 11, users can now schedule the dark theme using one among two different metrics. you'll schedule a dark theme to show on or off when the sun sets or rises. you'll also found out a custom schedule for dark mode activation if you would like .
Google actually unrolled the sunset/sunrise setting to Pixel phones running Android 10 earlier this year, but Android 11 will bring both that and therefore the timing feature to all or any .
Android 11 Updates Via Play Store
Each year, Google releases the newest version of Android. Monthly , it pushes out the newest Android security patch. Both of those updates get funneled to your phone either by your carrier or equipment manufacturer. due to this, some phones get many updates very quickly, while others either get them much slower or not in the least .
To counteract this, Android 11 gives more power associated with updates over to the Google Play Store. this enables Google to bypass carriers and OEMs entirely and obtrude updates to everyone. Of course, it still can’t issue the newest version of Android during this fashion or maybe the newest security patches. However, it can fix some security holes with this method and even update specific aspects of the Android system, too.
This is universally an honest thing because it will keep Android phones safer and more up-to-date, albeit the OEM has abandoned the phone. Obviously, it might be far better if that didn’t happen, but a minimum of Google is doing what it can to deal with this issue.
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