It is that time of the year when Google releases the final version of its mobile operating system. 2020 is the year for Android 11 — which is now stable and official! The unfortunate bit is that most of you will not be able to use it this year, even if it is not only available for Pixel phones only this time around. The new version should also arrive soon on devices from other manufacturers, including OnePlus, Xiaomi, Realme, and more.
If you were expecting a fresh look for, Android 11, you might have to wait for other future versions. There is no visual difference with Android 10. As such, you might not notice many differences when you first boot it up. That’s where this helpful guide comes in! Below, you’ll find over a dozen new features that make this latest version of the operating system the best yet.
RELATED: These are best features coming to Android 11
Notification history
Has a notification ever 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 new feature gives you the option of saving every single notification that landed on your phone over the past 24 hours. You can check the running list, find the notification you accidentally swiped, and see what you missed.
Chat bubbles come to Android 11
Stolen right from Facebook Messenger, we now have Chat Bubbles. Google has designed Android 11 to be all about communication, so 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 they faded into the background when the stable version of the operating system launched. Now, though, chat bubbles are here in Android 11 and taking center stage.
Conversation notifications
In Android 10, the notification drawer contains all your notifications in a seemingly-haphazard list. Certain apps tend to get prioritized and shot to the top of the list, but there doesn’t appear to be any specific reason why. Meanwhile, lower-priority notifications get moved down to the silent section, which doesn’t send out 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 your conversations. This would mean any app where you are directly communicating with someone else, including text messages and chat apps. It would also apply to direct messages within other apps, such as Instagram.
Screen recorder official in Android 11
There will be no need to use 3rd party apps to do screen recording. OEMs like Samsung and Huawei already have such functionalities out of the box and now we have the feature baked into Android.
The screen recorder function lives in the Quick Settings tiles. You tap the Screen Record feature which gives you a few options before you start recording. For example, you can choose whether or not your screen-taps should also be recorded and whether the phone should capture audio, too.
Controlling smart devices
More and more people are incorporating some form of smart home tech in their lives. In response to this growing trend, Google added a new section in Android 11 that allows you to easily control your various devices without needing to open an app.
You can hold down the power button to launch the new tool. At the top, you’ll find the usual power features, but underneath, you’ll see a lot more options. There’s a Google Pay shortcut that allows you to quickly choose which payment method you want your next contactless transaction to use. Under that, 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 can add/remove devices as you see fit.
Dark theme scheduling
You can now make some changes when using dark mode. Google has finally introduced a native dark mode to Android 11.
With Android 11, users can now schedule the dark theme using one of two different metrics. You can schedule a dark theme to turn on or off when the sun sets or rises. You can also set up a custom schedule for dark mode activation if you wish.
Getting Android 11 updates via Play Store
Each year, Google releases the latest version of Android. Each month, it pushes out the latest Android security patch. Both of these updates get funneled to your phone either by your equipment manufacturer (OEM). Because of this, some phones get many updates very quickly, while others either get them much slower or not at all.
As a solution, Android 11 gives more power related to updates over to the Google Play Store. This allows Google to bypass OEMs entirely and push out updates to everyone. Of course, it still can’t issue the latest version of Android in this fashion or even the latest 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 a good thing as it will keep Android phones safer and more up-to-date, even if the OEM has abandoned the phone. Obviously, it would be much better if that didn’t happen, but at least Google is doing what it can to address this issue.
One-time permissions and auto-reset
It’s no secret that Google has faced some hefty accusations of negligence over the past few years related to the privacy and security of its users. Thankfully, Android 11 now gives more control over privacy and security to users than ever before.
When you first install an app, Android 10 will ask you if you want to grant an app permissions all the time, only when you’re using the app, or not at all. This was a big step forward, but Android 11 gives the user even more control by allowing them to give permissions only for that specific session.
Wireless Android Auto
We rarely talk about Android Auto, for those who have not used it in their cars, it should be noted that it annoyingly requires your phone to be plugged in. Some specific phones — namely Pixels — can communicate with Android Auto wirelessly, but not everyone owns one of those phones.
Thankfully, in Android 11, every smartphone running the operating system can take advantage of wireless Android Auto connections. The only limitation will be that the head unit in your car will need to support the feature. Obviously, this will still be a hefty limitation for folks who own cars that are a few years old, but it will start the transition towards every Android Auto experience eventually being totally wireless.
Context-awareness digs deep into Voice Access
Users with mobility impairments have a nifty feature within Android called Voice Access. By turning this on, you can simply tell your Android phone what to do using the power of Google Assistant.
With Android 10, though, certain functions required you to voice-activate numbered on-screen elements. For example, you would say “Tap 4” while using the Twitter app to compose a new tweet (every link on the page would have a small number next to it). Now, though, you could say, “Open Twitter, compose tweet,” making your interactions with the phone much more fluid and natural.
While this will only be helpful for a minority of users, it shows how Google is taking accessibility within Android very seriously.
