Important features in Android 11

Android may be a mature OS . What meaning is that unless some designer inside Google features a wild-eyed harebrained idea, things just aren't getting to transform that much during a mature OS. Instead, the updates are gonna be about cleaning up some bugs or fixing some security and privacy issues or adding new features. But the thing about adding new features is that if you do not roll in the hay right, you finish up just overwhelming the user. It all becomes this weird slurry of things that you simply just completely ignore.

 I mean, check out every single Samsung phone from just like the Galaxy S3 to the Galaxy S8 if you would like an honest example of that. If you do not wanna bear your user in restraint boxes, what you've got to try to to is manage complexity. which is that the real job of a mature OS , managing complexity. therefore the big question is whether or not or not Google pulled that off. And my answer is barely, and that i think I can explain why I point at this thing that tons folks do once we get new software, it is the very very first thing that folks should do after an enormous update, it's that attend the settings, see what's new inside the settings because often tons of the new features, they're just sitting in there waiting to be toggled. It really may be a pretty great way to find out what you'll neutralize new software. It's sort of a site map, except for operating systems. So, all right, let's mention the new features in Android 11, but through the settings app. therefore the first setting you wanna check out is bubbles. So you bought to Apps Notifications, Notifications, Bubbles, and you create sure it's turned on. But the thing to truly concentrate to is what happens once you get a notification from a talk app like Android Messages or Facebook Messenger or whatever. Firstly, they seem within the section at the highest of your notifications called Conversations. And this section is awesome. It means you do not miss chats within the mixture of all of the opposite notifications you get from all those other apps you do not care about. And it also means you'll do stuff like mute notifications on a given chat thread because it's really busy, but that does not mean you're gonna miss it albeit it's muted 'cause it's still sitting at the highest of your notifications. i actually like it . Anyway, bubbles, if you check out the notification, you're gonna see a touch box up the lower right-hand corner of the notification. There's one version of it that has an arrow pointing to a circle, that's to show bubbles on, or an arrow pointing faraway from a circle to the turn bubbles off. This icon is confusing and bizarre , but i assume the square represents a notification and therefore the circle may be a bubble. Anyway, you tap it to toggle bubble mode on or off for any given conversation. Now, once you bubble a conversation, it turns into this tiny circle that you simply could put anywhere on the screen then you tap thereon . It exposes the chat thread then you'll chat. And you'll intermix services. So you'll have a stack of three or four or five different chat apps beat one bubble, and tap and toggle between them. And this is often great because it allows you to have a conversation with somebody going for a short time , really quick, while you're doing other stuff. then you'll just toss the thing away when you're done chatting thereupon person. Now, i do know the primary time you see bubbles, it's weird to possess this thing crop up on your screen. You're probably gonna want to show it off, but honestly, give'em an attempt . I ended up liking bubbles far more than I expected to. Okay, as long as we're talking about the notification shade, there's another new thing over here . Your media controls are not any longer interspersed throughout the highest of your notifications. They're up there together with your quick settings. That's just how it works now. But there's one setting that you simply can check. So you attend Sound, Media, Hide Player. and you'll turn this off. and that i have it turned off. Disabling it means your media controls will stick around for awhile, albeit you pause them. It creates some extra space within the shade, but it's worthwhile because then you'll go there and play paused stuff more quickly. and therefore the media player itself, it is the same buttons as before, but if you've played something from a couple of different apps, say Spotify then YouTube then Pocket Casts, rather than having all those stacked up in your notifications one after the opposite , now you swipe between them horizontally during this new section. then that's really neat. Also, don't miss the output button inside this new media section, which allows you to select where the audio goes . it might be pretty nice if this output things, some more things than, you know, basically Bluetooth things, but maybe that's something for subsequent version of Android. Okay, subsequent new big feature in Android 11 is Google's new Power Menu, which mixes three quite random things under an extended press of the facility button. So you've Power controls, Google Pay, then Smart Home controls. Google says this is often like your phone's interface to the important physical world, which sure. this is often where i feel Google's plan to manage complexity is beginning to get a touch strained. So for instance , for instance you would like to seek out the settings for this Power Menu. So you attend the settings app, which by itself looks like not regrettable . i prefer that important controls like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth are right at the highest . But anyway, where are the facility controls? Well, they're under System, Gestures. Gestures? I mean, i do know that they are there because Google put all of its custom controls underneath Gestures cause those wont to be actual gestures for the way that you'd control custom Google things, but nobody else knows that. it is a button, it isn't gesture. I mean, i will be able to means that if you wanna find something in settings, the straightforward thing to try to to is simply attend the highest and sort within the thing you're checking out and it will crop up . But I do wish that Google dot his thing that Samsung does where at rock bottom of a number of its settings pages, it tells you that if you are looking for something else that you simply thought should be therein setting page, it's over in another spot. Like i might always expect the Always On Display to be under the display settings, but it isn't . It's actually under the lock screen and Samsung gets that that's confusing. then they provide you a touch shortcut at rock bottom . But let's just assume you found your way somehow to the facility settings. You get there and this is often where you'll toggle different parts of the facility Menu. And albeit i feel that metaphor for what the facility Menu presents is weird. I do think it's super convenient to possess access to those smart home controls so quickly. So look, I'm not gonna re-evaluate every single feature in Android 11 during this article. I'm not gonna mention how screen recording finally works, how screenshots look a bit like they are doing on the iPhone now, or, you know, actually this one's nice. Android is finally cracking down on apps that want background permission all of the time. just about everything is getting moved to only have location permission when the app is open. and that is how it should be. beat all, all the opposite features that I'm not going to here, that's all pretty great things . At now . We're mainly talking about Pixel phones here. Although this year, a few others are becoming it directly , which is great. Other Android phones are gonna get Android 11 at some point. Now, speed on updates has gotten better over the last few years, but it's still not great. And even when the Android updates do come, it's hard to predict if everything goes to figure an equivalent . So for instance , most Android phones still have the three buttons at rock bottom , and a few little swipey controls that Google tried to urge everybody to modify to a few of versions ago. Here's another example. That Power Button Menu, on most Samsung phones, long-pressing the facility button now takes you to Bixby, but Google wants the facility button to require you thereto new Power Menu. So is Samsung gonna switch thereto or not? And once they do, are they gonna use Google Home to power the smart home controls just like the Pixel does, and Google Pay just like the Pixel does? No, they are not . They're gonna wanna use Smart Things for home control and Samsung buy paying inside that menu. And it's that sort of complexity that i do not know if Google knows the way to manage. I'm not talking about the complexity within Android 11 itself. I'm talking about complexity across different versions of Android 11, Samsungs, and Microsofts, and LGs, and Googles, and whoever else. Honestly, though, i actually do hate ending every single Android phone that how only Pixels catch on first, and everybody else may be a bit later. So I'm not kidding once I say that i feel that update timing is recuperating . It's never gonna be day and date nearly as good because the way the iPhone does it, but we are an extended ways from the battle days once you would wait six months to a year to never for Android updates. Plus companies like Samsung and OnePlus are committing to 3 years of updates which really matters. So that's my review of Android 11. it's a bunch of latest features that are just barely contained into something that feels comprehensible. I do think it is a fine update. Samsung and Microsoft do two totally various things . And Android remains messy on Chrome OS. You know, phones, i feel they have enough features to last us for a short time . it's time to finally fix Android on the large screens, and also to try to to a far better job helping developers navigate all of those newform factors that are coming.