The most notable new Android 11 features in the first Developer Preview

By Kamran Zia -

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The very first Android 11 Developer Preview landed earlier today. This is our first look at the next version of Android, which won’t land in a stable form until the third quarter of the year (likely in August or September).

The Developer Preview landing this early is pretty notable as most DPs usually land in March. The reasoning behind this move likely has to do with just how developer-focused Android 11 is at the moment. Most of the changes within the system are not user-facing but could have a dramatic impact on existing and upcoming Android apps.

As such, installing Android 11 on your own phone right now might not be too worth it. There will be a lot of bugs and most of the new features you won’t even see. However, we’ve compiled a running list of the most notable features in this first preview. Check them out below:

  • New technologies: Android 11 is going to be much better when it comes to working with new technologies, including 5G, foldable displays, and low-latency video decoding for game streaming services such as Google Stadia. There will also be better call screening support, deeper integration of image formats such as HEIF, and support for Google’s own neural networks API.
  • Enhanced notification shade conversations: When you get a text, you can see the most recent message in your notification shade. Not only will you be able to see more of the thread but you’ll also have richer ways to compose messages, including a way to send picture messages right from the notification.
  • Conversation bubbles: This was actually a feature Google launched in Android 10. However, Google is including it within its own wrap-up of Android 11 features, which leads us to believe Google is going to push harder for this to be adopted by more developers and OEMs.
  • Context-aware dark mode: The system-wide dark mode launched with Android 10 will get a “new” trick with Android 11: the ability to automatically activate or deactivate depending on the time of day. As spotted by Android Police, this is actually a feature OEMs such as Samsung have already integrated on their own, but now it will be baked right into Android.

Related: Android 11 Developer Preview lands, install it now on your Pixel phone

  • Enhanced one-time permissions: You know how in Android 10 you can tell apps to grab your location, microphone, or camera data only while the app is open? Now, the OS can let you approve those permissions just a single time and will revoke the permission later.
  • Scoped storage: In the interest of better security, apps will now only have access to certain parts of your filesystem. This will essentially “silo” apps to better protect your private data. This is a huge change for Android and is causing quite a stir in the development community. Google acknowledges those issues in its blog post on Android 11, saying it will give more time to developers to fully transition to the new system.
  • Enhancements for Project Mainline: Android 10 introduced the ability to update parts of Android right through the Play Store. Android 11 will take this even further by allowing even more parts of Android to get updates without needing to send out a full OTA.

That list might seem pretty short, but keep in mind there are tons of other updates out there that are far more technical in nature that the general user will never see. However, many new features will likely pop up in future Developer Previews between now and the stable launch of Android 11. Stay tuned!

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