You should try out these Android 11 features.
Google has recently announced the release of the Android 11 update. The OS is an upgrade over Android 10 and has already started hitting Google Pixel devices. OEMs like OnePlus, Oppo, Realme and others have also started working on the Android 11 based update for their custom UIs.
Android 11 is more of an incremental upgrade over last year’s Android 10. It does not offer major UI changes but introduces a fair share of new features. If you have just installed the new update and want to test out the newbies, here’s what the update brings to the table:
A better notification panel
With every update, Google aims to offer better a notification experience to the Android users. Android 11 introduces notification categories, namely, Conversations, Alerting and Silent. As the name suggests, the Conversations category will bring notifications from chat apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Hike and others. It will allow users to even post a quick reply from the notification share itself.
Other notifications like missed call alerts and app push notifications will drop into the Alerting category. Similarly, silenced notifications will drop in the Silent section.
Android 11 also introduces notification history, which will allow users to take a look at every single notification that has arrived. In case you swiped away a notification by mistake or someone just deleted a WhatsApp message, you will be able to take a look at it using this feature.
New Media Controls
Google has improved the way users control media with the Android 11 update. To offer a better experience, the company has now added media controls in the Quick Settings section of the notification shade. This makes sense as a media controller should not be treated as a notification.
Upon swiping down the notification panel, the user will be able to take a glance at the media controller, which will show the app’s logo from where the media is being played, cover art, basic controls and more. As you further pull down the panel, the alert expands and shows more information.
Screen Recorder
Screen recording feature has been there on iOS devices for quite some time now. Even in the world of Android, custom skins like MIUI, OneUI, OxygenOS and others have had the feature for quite some time now. With the Android 11 update, the feature has also arrived on the Pixel devices. Moreover, the OS-based feature will also bring a better experience to other OEM devices.
Chat Bubbles
We have been taking advantage of chat apps even more in the ongoing coronavirus lockdown. In order to offer a better chatting experience, Google has introduced chat bubbles. It is similar to Facebook Messenger’s chat bubble feature with the difference being that this can now work with any chat app.
Apart from the aforementioned features, the Android 11 update also brings wireless Android Auto support, better permission management, advanced privacy and much more. These features are available on the eligible Google Pixel devices already. They will be available on other devices as well once the OEMs decide to roll out their customised version of Android 11.
