Android 11 is here, three months after the first public beta was released in June. Honestly, it's not very different from the beta. It mostly fixes some bugs and third-party app troubles as well as adds a long awaited built-in screen recorder but for the majority of people who didn't check out the beta, you'll find a few new features like new controls for media and devices, improved privacy permissions and a focus on communicating with people. The changes from android 10 are subtle, especially since some of them are behind the scenes like better 5g support. Still a new OS can make your phone feel fresh and efficient and android 11 delivers.
The feature i'm most stoked about is built-in screen recording. IOS already offers this while Samsung, LG and Oneplus have this in their android phones. Prior to this i'd been using a third-party app on my pixel to capture snippets from my review videos to share to instagram. Now that a native version is finally available, i can delete the ad written app at last, which also added an annoying watermark. Another more noticeable new tool in android 11 is bubbles for messaging apps. It allows apps like android messages, Telegram and Facebook messenger to display a floating circle over all other things on your screen, so you can quickly reply to your friends without leaving what you're working on. It sounds familiar that's because it's basically facebook messenger's floating heads that's been around for years on android. The new OS offers a few more features though like the ability to open a bubble from a notification and see your recent conversations from different apps. My biggest issue with bubbles is that it's not consistent. After enabling the feature and settings, i used it mostly with multiple conversations across telegram and facebook messenger and was frustrated when chats would randomly close. I had two bubbles open for different people in telegram and each would just go away for reasons that i can only guess.
Sometimes, it seemed like it was because i used the app itself, even if it was to start a completely separate conversation and sometimes it seemed like it was because i locked my phone, facebook messenger's chats stuck around though so this might be a telegram specific issue. Bugs are often a given with early software though so unless bothered by these hiccups since they'll presumably be fixed in time. The other problem about chats not sticking around is that you can't reopen them until you get another notification from that conversation. You have to press the icon on the bottom right of an alert to launch a bubble. Think of them more as interactive notifications but this was also inconsistent sometimes, the launch button just wouldn't show up. If you wanted to leave a chat floating and had accidentally closed it, the only way to re-open it would be to wait for an alert to come in. You should also theoretically be able to reopen it in the recent bubbles page but during my testing this never showed any of my previous chats.
It always brought up a pathetically empty window. For most people this isn't a huge issue but when you want to maintain all-day contact say with a partner or a collaborator on an important project, it would be nice to keep bubbles open with them. Another way google tries to make it easier to communicate with the important people in your life with android 11 is by grouping and prioritizing alerts from messaging apps. When it debuted in the beta i wasn't sure if it would help with organization or actually add more clutter to the notifications panel. Now that i've spent more time with the software i'm leaning towards the latter. The section headers do provide some form of organization and help me differentiate more urgent alerts from the less important ones but sometimes google is wrong and relegates a notification i care about to the silent section at the bottom so i have to scroll all the way to the end to make sure i haven't missed anything.
Since i still have to go through the entire notifications list instead of dealing with just the alerts near the top, the new section headers actually add to the length of the panel, so i have to swipe a little more to clear everything. Google placing conversations near the top is nice in theory but it leaves out people that i interact with on apps like Twitter, Instagram and Email, i prefer to address twitter and instagram alerts sooner than messages, so google's ranking isn't my favorite. You can prioritize specific chats but only they're already coming from the supported messaging apps. If you hate clutter like me you'll be disappointed to learn that there's no way to disable these section headers. Another change that android 11 brings to your notifications shade is a new persistent media player in the quick settings panel. When you're playing music or a video via a supported app like spotify or youtube a dashboard appears above your notifications for quick access to controls.
This is meant to make it easier to change your output device whether it's headphones, speakers, tv or your phone itself. In general, it's effective but unnecessary. The player takes up two more rows of space pushing notifications down and honestly i found the lock screen controls more convenient. My early build of android 11 continued to be a bit buggy here, with the player sometimes not showing up even though Spotify was streaming a banging k-pop playlist. I started playing a show on HBO max after i paused Spotify but the HBO app did not take over that space and the music controls remained. This feature is on by default from media apps so developers support shouldn't be an issue. You can choose to hide the player when your media sessions are over although i prefer to leave it on to resume playback whenever i wanted. It's nice to have a space dedicated to playback controls instead of in a notification card like you had in android 10, especially since that feature was finicky in the older software but the lock screen version is still easier to use especially since my phone is usually locked when i'm listening to music or watching tv and it's easier and faster to access the lock screen than the notifications shade.
With android 11, Google is also trying to cram more controls into spaces that were previously underused such as the power button menu which now shows devices connected to the same network as your phone like your smart lights, security cameras or speakers, in addition to your google pay cards and there's still the shutdown and restart buttons of course. Each of your devices has its own tile and one tap will turn them off or on. There's also a master control tile that can turn off all your lights at once which is handy. The master switch is the first box you'll see but you can also rearrange all your devices to put your favorites higher up. I was dubious on this feature when i first tried it in the beta because it's just easier to tell my speaker to turn my lights on or off but i've since come around especially after i added my chromecast to this page it's much easier to hold down the power button and immediately control all my devices than having to find the Google home app and search for the specific speaker or tv that i wanted to turn off. Those in large homes with many rooms and multiple gadgets connected to their network will likely find this helpful too. Those are the most obvious updates but there are some small less noticeable tweaks too.
Google handles screenshots a little differently in this iteration. They appear as a thumbnail in the bottom left corner after being captured with options to share edit or dismiss. Thank god the company has gotten rid of the notification after every single screenshot which used to really clutter up the page. Another imperceptible but important update is the ability to set one-time app permissions for things like location and camera access. This way you can have greater control over what apps are following you in the background. Plus, if you haven't used an app in a few months, its permissions will automatically reset and the app will have to request permissions again the next time you open it. Obviously, I haven't used android 11 long enough for that to happen yet but i appreciate the idea in theory. Android 11 also added the option to show an extra row of apps at the bottom of your home screen for easier access to what Google things you use most often. It's similar to the suggestions already available at the top of the app drawer but is pretty redundant. Most users already place their most frequently used apps on their home page. When i enabled this Google showed me stuff like spotify, telegram, instagram and netflix which were already sitting on the screen right above it. The good news is you can choose not to enable this row and it's not on by default. There are some other small changes coming to android 11 that will most likely be more fruitful over time.
For example, a new on-device visual cortex better identifies elements on the screen so that those who use voice controls can better navigate the interface. Also, new 5g app support means developers can check if you're on the faster networks and then say bump up video resolution or download higher quality game assets. Most of my frustrations with android 11 are the result of bugs rather than the features themselves. Bubbles has the potential to be helpful while the new screen recorder and device and media controls are useful. Yes, some updates are redundant but the good news is Google gives you the option to disable most of them. Android 11 is not a big leap forward and while it does potentially add more clutter, it also gives users more control and options. This is an android that power users can tweak to their heart's content as long as they can get past the initial mess.
Tags :-
#whenwillandroid11bereleased
#whatphoneswillgetandroid11
#howtoinstallandroid11onanyphone
#android11vsandroid10
#android11supporteddevices
#android11screenshot
#android11samsung
#android11review
#technewssites
#technewsindia
#technewshindi
#technewstop
#trendingtechnews
#technewstopapp
#technewsstop
#technologynewsarticles
