Android 11 beta features

As is customary android is due for its annual refresh which takes it closer and closer to becoming an even more mature operating system.

Android 11 brings several background and foreground updates to this year's android refresh but for most users its the foreground changes that are the most important. One thing that will become apparent while reading this article is how similar the worlds two leading mobile operating systems are getting with security and updates becoming the order of the day less so with google especially in terms of updates with Google's initiative project mainline - more on this later.

Android 11 mainly updates the notification system, adding media widgets in the drop-down menu, more security and software refreshes, new recent screen and screenshots and last but not least the power off menu has received some nice new additional features.

The notification system

Year over year Google always seems to be fiddling around with the notification system of android and this year is no different. Google last year did a major overhaul of how notifications show up on Android 10 and this year they are taking it a bit further with grouping notifications in three main categories being namely conversations(new), alerting notifications and silent notifications

Conversations (new)

As the names suggest this is the sections where most of the direct communications take place things like your text messages will show up in the section. This section allows users to bubble notification( available to all apps) similar to what Facebook messenger does and you can also prioritize certain people or contacts so that they will be given preference and their image even shows up on top your notification shade area.

Alerting notifications and Silent notifications

Google has also made some additions to these messages mainly allowing users to decide where these notifications show up e.g. the lock screen of drop-down notifications shade and users can now easily shift apps into either alerting notifications and silent notifications by long pressing on the app and categorizing it accordingly. Notification history is also now being more easily implemented so users can get a chronological timeline of notifications at their disposal.

Adding media widgets in the drop-down menu

Google has done an iPhone and they have gone for a similar implementation to apple by adding media controls to the drop-down notifications menu. The new media controls allow users t quickly switch out output devices and has some basic controls like audio volume control.

Security refreshes

Android 11 now allows users to have greater control of when apps can request for things like Gps location and have implemented a similar approach to Apple where users can allow what type of access apps have to their location.

Much has been made of android fragmentation and the subsequent lack of updates devices receive and this has not gone unnoticed by Google who last year launched project mainline which is an initiative to separate large components of the operating system thereby taking away the need for big updates opting rather for smaller component-based updates that can be done through the play store -This is particularly important when it comes to security.

Reworked recent screen and screenshots

The recent app page has received a rather substantial update with new features being added namely the ability to take a screenshot of the current window and the ability to copy the text of the current window.

Screenshots have also gained similar animations to those on iPhone and there is even mention of the ability to natively stitch multiple screenshots together.

Power off menu has received some nice new additional features

Google has added some smarts to the power off sheet by adding the option to display users credit cards or services like PayPal within reach and smart home applications can also be accessed through the power off sheet making it possible switch of lights and the like.

All in all android 11 seems from the changes seen in the beta seems to be a rather small incremental change to android and that is to be expected as the OS is now mature. Some honourable mentions are that airplane mode now doesn't automatically switch off Bluetooth and native screen recording could be a thing -hard maybe here.