Google has unveiled Android 11 Beta including a series of developer updates. The search-engine giant has released the latest updates for developers from Kotlin coroutines, JetPack Compose Toolkit, refreshed Android Studio, and an enhanced experience for the Play Console. According to Google, the developers have been providing feedback on the Android 11 developer previews since February. The team has released the first beta of Android 11 based on three core themes such as People, Controls, and Privacy.
People
Android 11 has been designed with a people-centric, expressive manner. The new platform will completely change the way we interact with others via conversations. The key is to build an OS that can easily recognize and prioritize the important people in your life. Some of the important features included with People theme are conversation notifications, bubbles, consolidated keyboard suggestions, and voice access.
The Conversation notifications will be displayed in a dedicated section at the top of the shade. Google has termed the design as people-forward. You will be able to open the conversation as a bubble including the ability to create a conversation shortcut on the home screen. The Bubbles features included with Android 11 enable you to retain conversations in view and accessible while multitasking. The Messaging and chat apps should make use of Bubbles API on notifications to activate this feature in Android 11.
The Consolidated keyboard suggestions automatically populate context-specific entities and strings via Autofill apps and Input Method. The Android 11 has introduced voice access, which will be useful for those users who would like to control the smartphone by voice. The voice access ships with an on-device visual cortex that is capable of understanding screen content and context. It also generates labels and access points for accessibility commands.
Controls
With the help of Android 11, you can control and manage all of your smart devices in one single dashboard. The Device Controls enables you to access and control connected devices quickly and easily. You just need to long-press the power button to bring up the device controls instantly in one single destination. Google added that apps can make use of a new API to make them visible in the controls.
With the help of Media Controls, you can easily switch the output device for displaying the audio or video content. It could be headphones, speakers, and other accessories. You can activate the option from Developer Options and will be enabled by default in the Android 11 beta release.
Privacy
With the help of Android 11, you will be able to exercise control over sensitive permissions and to keep devices more secure via faster updates. The one-time permission enables users to give an app access to a microphone, camera, or location for one time. The app will request permission again until the next time the user works with the app. The Android 11 will automatically reset all the runtime permissions associated with the app if you haven’t used an app for an extended time.
The app will prompt for the permissions the next time the app is used. Google has given more time for the developers to make significant changes to the background location in their apps until 2021. The Google Play System Updates provides a facility for expediting updates of Core OS components to devices in the Android ecosystem. Google has doubled the number of updatable modules with 12 new modules for improving privacy, security, and consistency for not only users but also developers.
Android 11 also brings in significant new features for developers including Android Studio. Going forward, developers will be able to build quality Android apps without any difficulty. The Android 11 beta will receive several new iterations based on the feedback. The final release is expected in August 2020.
