Google has just released the first developer preview of Android 11, and while it's still very early days, the update comes with its fair share of new features and changes.
So if you're wondering what Android 11 might have in store for you when it launches later this year, here are 10 new Android 11 features.
1. Chat bubbles
Chat bubbles first appeared with the beta versions of Android Q, but Google decided to remove them in the stable version for Android 10.
With the first beta version of Android R development, they have reappeared with the same concept. Basically, with chat bubbles, messaging apps can display conversations in floating bubbles, similar to Facebook Messenger's Chat Heads feature that many people like to use.
Theoretically, any messaging app can use the chat bubbles, but as of now, only the Google Messages and Gmail apps are using the feature.
You can open a chat bubble for a conversation by simply long-pressing on a message notification and tapping "Show in chat bubble."
You can then reply to conversations in a floating window similar to the Messenger implementation, and it even has support for Smart Reply.
2. Conversations
With Android 11, Google is also trying to make it easier for users to find their conversation-related notifications in the sea of information that is the notification shade. TO
Android 11 automatically gathers all your message threads into a handy Conversations section of the notification panel that also stays at the top.
Additionally, long-pressing any notification in the conversations section brings up a ton of options, including the ability to open the conversation in a bubble. Also add a shortcut to the conversation directly on the home screen or mark it as important.
3. Copy and paste, in the notification shade
If you are one of the many people who often find themselves replying to messages directly from the notification shade, Android 11 brings another cool feature for you.
The notification panel now supports copy and paste, so you can copy an image from, say, Google Chrome, and paste it into the reply section of a notification to send it. This means that you may no longer need to open the messaging app just because you want to attach a picture to your reply. That is definitely helpful.
4. Improved permissions
Google has been making Android more secure with every update. Last year, with Android 10, the company overhauled how location permissions are granted to apps and gave us slightly more granular control over an app's access to our location data.
With Android 11, Google has made location permissions even stricter and added fine-grained control over more permissions, like camera and microphone.
In Android R, if an app requests location access, you get a new “This Time Only” option that will give the app access to your location for that one time only. There's now also no "Always Allow" option, which means apps that need location access all the time will have to get approval from Google.
Plus, you can now allow an app a one-time type of access pass to your camera and microphone to make sure it doesn't try to access any of those things without your knowledge. That's definitely a relief, especially with the rise of spyware of late.
5. Native screen recorder
Another feature that first appeared last year with Android Q it was only removed before the stable version of Android 10: the screen recorder is back this time, with an improved user interface.
In Android 11, you can access the built-in screen recorder functionality from the Quick Settings panel. Tapping this starts a 3 second timer before the screen starts recording. There is also a helpful notification to stop, pause or cancel screen recording.
As of now, there are no settings to dig into to change the resolution, record internal audio, or set an orientation for screen recordings, but we hope to see those features added in future updates.
5. Improved Do Not Disturb
Android 11 also brings improvements to Do Not Disturb, mainly because it brings better support for handling DND exceptions, which is something I'm pretty excited about. As you probably know, with Android 10, the DND menu already had exceptions, but now there are better and more organized categories like People, Apps, and Alerts.
So you can set exceptions to not disturb particular callers, specific apps, or just allow alarms and reminders to sound regardless of the DND status on your phone. That's great.
6. Scheduled dark mode
Last year, Google finally brought a dark mode system-wide native to Android 10, and this year, it seems the company is simply improving the feature, specifically by adding the option to schedule dark mode to turn on and off automatically.
This schedule can work based on the sunset and sunrise times in your region, or if you prefer, you can set a custom time to enable dark mode.
This is something I really wanted on Android because using dark mode all day is a bit annoying for me, but using it after sunset is much better, especially when outside.
7. Pin apps to the Share menu
This is another feature that was also available in the beta versions of Android 10, but would be removed later. With the first developer preview of Android 11, you can once again pin apps to the top of the share sheet.
That means you can make sure that the apps you use the most, will stay on top and not be replaced by random apps just because you used them once and now you can't get rid of them.
8. Turning on airplane mode no longer disconnects Bluetooth
One of the biggest complaints a lot of people have with Android is the fact that turning on Airplane mode also disables Bluetooth.
Fortunately, with Android 11 that is no longer the case. So the next time you board your flight with your headphones on, you can enable Airplane mode without having to turn Bluetooth back on and wait for the headphones to reconnect.
10. Pixel 4 exclusive features
Increase touch sensitivity
While most screen protectors don't usually hamper the daily operation of your Android phone, some tougher tempered glass can make the screen unresponsive to light touches easily.
In an effort to address that issue (at least for Pixel 4 users), Google has added an option to increase touch sensitivity on the Pixel 4.
You can enable this feature by heading to Display Settings, scrolling down to the bottom and tapping Advanced.
Gestures to play/pause music
Android 11 also adds a new Soli gesture that allows users to employ a simple hand gesture to play/pause music.
We haven't tested this feature, but it does state that users can pause and resume music simply by "touching the air above the phone," which sounds incredibly cool, albeit a recipe for success.
10. Other changes and features
On top of all that, Android 11 brings a ton of features and changes. Developer options now only show Bluetooth codecs that are actually supported by the connected Bluetooth headset. There's a new overlay that shows the screen refresh rate (don't confuse it with an FPS meter, it's not that), and there's support for more screen types, like waterfall and foldable screens.
Furthermore, Android 11 claims to bring connectivity improvements and 5G, a scrolling screenshot feature that's currently hidden, and a hidden battery sharing menu that suggests the next Pixel 5 could come with support for reverse wireless charging.
Android 11 brings many new and exciting features
Although the software that Google released right now is the first Developer Preview for Android 11. By definition, it means it's too early to say what new features Android 11 may or may not offer when it finally comes out; It's still interesting to see what Google has been working on.
We're pretty excited about releasing other developer updates so we can see what features make the cut as things progress and what new things are added to the final version of Android 11. We should also know more about Google's plans for Android 11 at Google I/O in May.
In the meantime, we're exploring Android 11 to see if we can find more features, so stay tuned for more updates. Leave a comment below, with your requests for Android 11.