Android 11 – What’s New And Improved

Android 11, the latest version of the Android operating system was released in 2020 by Google on its new smartphone Pixel. From there, other mobile devices like Samsung incorporated this version and released it. Although there are no largely distinct features on the new updated version that people would come to notice but the android tablet development can have effects. There have been certain improvements that make this the best version of Android 11. The new features that have been incorporated in the latest Android 11 version have been listed below and these might make you consider upgrading your OS.

Chat Notifications:

The new and improved version of Android 11 prioritizes the conversations that are carried on apps like Whatsapp, Instagram on a personal level. This is distinct from the older version of Android in that in Android 10, the notification panel organized notifications in a chaotic manner such that the notifications from some apps were on top and were prioritized while some others were automatically put below. Furthermore, some app notifications were put on silent such that they did not alert the user about the notification. The change made in new Android 11 sorts the notifications coming from different apps into three distinct categories, namely – conversation, alert and silent which also came into play for android tablet development. Therefore, the conversation tab contains the chat notifications that you get from apps like Whatsapp, Instagram, and direct messages on any app.

Retain Notifications:

This feature basically retains the history of your notifications for you to go back to whenever you want. This is beneficial during times when we, either through an error in judgment or involuntarily, swipe away the notifications that could have been of use or important to us. However, in Android 10, that was the last that we would see of that notification and there was no way to get them back. This inconvenience has been removed in Android 11 as it saves every notification that the user has been receiving for the duration of 24 hours. Therefore, if the user happens to accidentally swipe the notifications away, they can go to the list that saves these notifications and find the one they were looking for on there. However, this feature is not a default setting in Android 11 and has to be switched on in the phone setting in the ‘Apps and Notifications’ section. This is where you find the list of notifications that have been saved once you switch this feature on. This feature saves even silent notifications that do not send out alerts and do not get attention by the users.

Keep Your Personal And Work Life Separate:

Many users have android phones that have been provided to them by the company that they work for. This has its own hassles as the phone is then tracked by the company which can make changes or updates the phone whenever they want to. This ruins the privacy of the user and therefore forces them to keep another phone for their personal uses. The new version of Android, therefore, helps the user to divide the phone into two different profiles – one can be used for work while the other can be personalized by the user. Both the sections cannot be merged and are totally separate from each other, providing the user with utmost privacy. This is because the company cannot monitor the personal profile that is maintained by the users, thus providing the workers with a sense of relief.

Widening Its User Reach:

Android users that suffer from impairments, especially to their mobility skills have been given inclusion in the Android 11 version of the operating system. The Android 10 version did have a feature for these users named ‘Voice Access’, which allowed the users to direct the Google Assistant to perform tasks like sending messages or calling people. However, there were still features that needed the users to tap on a certain number for them to be activated. These features have been removed for the inclusion of mobility impaired users, even though they represent a minority. This move shows that Android is devoted to offering comfort and convenience to all of its users.

Floating Chat Heads:

The new Android 11 has incorporated features enhancing communication and conversations on apps aimed at smoothing over these functions for the convenience of users. This particular feature is aimed at chat bubbles, which made their first appearance in the previous version of Android i.e. Version 10. But in the latter, they were not given as much importance and therefore went unnoticed by a majority of the users. In contrast to this, the chat bubbles occupy one of the top spots in the new features introduced in Android 11. Chat bubbles might be remembered by the users of Messenger which contained this feature with chat heads appearing for personal messages sent to you by people. This bubble appears on the screen, irrespective of any app that you might be using during that time. This chat head opens up the personal conversation when tapped on and can be removed completely or restored to the icon that it appeared as. This feature can now work for any personal chats on any app and not just apps that are designed with this feature.

Facilitating Screen Recordings:

Although screen recording features can be added to the phone with the download of apps in the Google Play Store that offer this feature, Android 11 brings to the users a default feature with screen recording built in so that the users do not feel the need to use it from third-party apps. Many devices consist of a semi-circle icon which when tapped on, turns into a full circle. This is the Quick Settings option and this is where the option of the screen recorder option is found. There are some features in the screen recorder which are default. However, for enhanced features, users will have to take assistance from the app store.

Dark Mode Feature:

This feature too was introduced to the Android operating system with the previous version i.e. Android 10. This was received well by a lot of the users as the dark mode made its way into some social media memes as well. However, there were no advanced features to this mode as it was just an option that could be turned on and off according to the user’s convenience. However, with the new feature that has been introduced in Android 11, the dark mode can be scheduled to turn on and off according to the time of the day, whether it is day or night time. Apart from this, the users can customize their own schedule according to when they want the dark mode to be activated and turned off.

Privacy And Permissions:

With the recent developments and the debate surrounding consumer privacy, it came as no surprise that the latest rollout of the Android 11 has brought in more security and privacy for the users of Android devices. To ensure that the location of the users is safeguarded, the new update has brought in a feature that limits the use or access of the location of the user’s device to apps only. This means that even when the apps are open in the background, your location cannot be accessed unless and until you use the app. When it comes to the permissions that all apps require, Android tablet development ensures that the apps ask for the permission of the users only once and do not add to their inconvenience by asking for camera and microphone access again and again. If an app has not been visited by a user for a long duration, this version of Android ensures that their privacy is maintained and therefore resets the permissions that have been acquired from the user for the app These features go a long way in making sure that the users’ privacy and data are not used for corrupt practices.