Here are almost 100 new features in Android 11 - Android Police

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This story was originally published 2020/04/08
10:21am PDTon Apr 8, 2020 and last updated 2020/06/28
3:51pm PDTon Jun 28, 2020. 

Android 11 may look like a relatively iterative release of Google's mobile operating system, at least on the surface. But we're not so sure. Android's latest update features changes large and small, some of which you can't even see, but that could have a significant impact on the platform going forward. We've compiled a list of what we think are at least 100 of the new and notable changes—a list that's only bound to grow as we near its official release.

Google has changed the timeline for its Android 11 releases in recent months, adding an extra Developer Preview and pushing most subsequent releases back by around a month. However, the final stable release is still set for sometime this summer in Q3.

Above: Old Android 11 timeline. Below: The new timeline.

Before we dive in, we'd like to thank you: our tipsters and readers. Our job would be so much harder if it weren't for you helping us spot new stuff to look into, and AP ❤️s you.

Now up to Beta 1

Our coverage has been updated through Android 11 Beta 1, including the previous DP1, DP2, DP3, DP4. The most recent additions to our list are just below. By our count, the number of features added in total to Android 11 so far comes in somewhere around 90-95, though that varies depending where you draw the line on separate features. If you count features that arrived on Android 11 first and trickled down to Pixels on Android 10 via Feature Drops, then it's a little over 100, and if you break out smaller individual changes to "big" features, the number is even higher — especially if you count every individual API change or reversion separately.

Either way, the number is at least a little subjective, but we tried to be conservative.

What's new?

While Android 11 still has quite a few user-facing changes (especially as of Beta 1), they're less numerous than in previous releases, and we're getting a lot more "under-the-hood" tweaks to things like general user privacy and changes to APIs.

It's been a bit since we updated our full list, paired with the fact that some stuff in Android 11 is so subtle that it slid under the radar for a while, the new additions below come from several versions. Some of these features are new as of Android 11 Beta 1, some (like many of the APIs) are older, but didn't get standalone coverage. Either way, they're all present on Android 11:

• 4GB filesize limit for videos is gone: Apps may not take advantage of it yet, and there can be other device-specific limitations, but the ancient and arbitrary limit is no longer present.
• Android 11 gets a trashcan: Apps can throw away files without actually deleting them, allowing you 30 days to change your mind or recover them before they're really gone.
• Files app on Android 11 picks AOSP file manager features: It's not an Android 11 feature, per se, but the Files app has picked up the AOSP file manager's ability to access storage sources in other apps like Dropbox.
• Devices launching with Android 11 will require seamless updates: Phones that debut running Android 11 have no choice but to support seamless updates and A/B partitioning to pass Google's Vendor Test Suite and ship with Google apps, effectively making it a requirement.
• Block Store will make logging in to all your accounts across apps and services on new phones a one-tap deal — if developers implement it: Android 11 has a new "Block Store" API (together with a "One Tap" cross-platform sign-in system) which will make signing in to all your stuff on a new phone as easy as pulling down your cloud backup during the setup process. That is, if developers actually use it.
• Voice Access improvements: Android's accessibility feature now understands the context for your commands. It can read you the content on your screen, and respond to commands based on that content contextually, rather than through numbers for interactive elements, as it did previously.
• Bubble notifications get more settings in Beta 1: It's probably just a reshuffling of options elsewhere, but the "Bubbles" section for notifications in each app now allows you to set details on a per-conversation rather than a global basis.
• Messages will soon support Android 11's bubble notifications.
• Darker elements for dark theme on the Pixel Launcher, and dark icons in Settings.
• Smart home power menu controls: Android 11 brings new smart home controls to the expanding functionality of the long-press power menu. Initially a bit buggy via a sideloaded app and DP4, they were further polished in Beta 1, giving you fast access to your smart lights, vacuums, thermostats, cameras, and other gadgets. Its only potential impediment is that it doesn't work while your phone is locked.
• Emergency alerts in Spanish, plus Do Not Disturb alert exceptions: You can configure in Android 11 Beta 1 to receive alerts in Spanish (when possible), and a new setting explicitly allows alerts to be exempt from Do Not Disturb (though they sometimes were before, it wasn't something you could adjust).
• Media control tweaks: This is a developer option as of Beta 1, but Google is bringing a smaller version of the media control notification to the quick settings section of the notification shade, plus an expanded set of controls to the expanded quick settings shade. It also brings a carousel for multiple sets of simultaneous controls and quick access to a (slightly redesigned) output picker.
• Pixel Launcher's new app suggestions for the home screen: Some of the details for this were spotted in the seemingly accidental early Beta 1 rollout. Now you can add a set of app suggestions to the persistent bottom row of the Pixel Launcher's home screen.
• Sideloading apps is about to get a bit more tedious: Android 11 restarts apps that try to install other apps after you enable the "allow from this source" setting for sideloading them. Google claims it's working as intended, we claim that's stupid.
• More conversation notification tweaks: The long-press options have changed, also removing the ability to break out a notification as a bubble.
• Gesture to bring back a closed app in recents/multitasking: A swipe down from the top of the menu restores the most recently cleared app, if you're quick. 
• Independent left/right gesture navigation sensitivity settings now work: You can fine-tune it as you see fit.
• Unused app permissions are automatically revoked after some time: If you don't use an app for long enough (and we don't know how long that's supposed to be yet), it will eventually lose permissions you've granted it.
  • Furthermore, all permissions are set to revoke in this manner by default as of DP4, though the change may have reverted in Beta 1, and we aren't sure if the original change was a bug/intentional or not.
• Persistent/ongoing notifications can be hidden: Notifications in DP3 can be swiped away, where they'll appear sort of minimized inside an "apps active in background" section. 
• Ethernet tethering: You can share a tethered internet connection via a USB Ethernet dongle, rather than just over a USB cable.
• Recents/multitasking loses App Suggestions, gets screenshot, share, and select buttons: Faster access to those features, but we lose the old app suggestions.
• Volume menu renamed: It's "Sound" now.
• An updated screenshot interface: It's pretty hot, with a new ribbon on the bottom with the share and edit buttons, plus a floating screenshot preview, and a big obvious X in the corner to close/dismiss it with. Still no scrolling screenshots yet, though.
• Flower and Hexagon shapes for Pixel Themes.
• Wireless debugging quick setting tile.
• 5G state detection API that will let apps know if you're connected to a 5G connection.
• Hinge angle detection API so apps can better support UI tweaks in different configurations on foldables.
• (Better) variable refresh rate support for high framerate displays.
• New "Resume on reboot" feature to allow apps to run immediately after OTAs are installed — for example, overnight, so you don't miss notifications while it sits updated on your bedstand until morning.
• Neural network API improvements.
• Developers can better see how and why their apps crashed thanks to new "Crash Reasons Reporting" in the exit reasons API.
• ADB Incremental makes it easier and faster for developers to push updates and tweaks to in-development apps over ADB.
• Data access auditing: New APIs developers can use to follow permissions access below the granularity of the app and track down which bits of the app (like third-party libraries) might be abusing those permissions.
• Disable ADB authorization timeout: A setting in developer options that lets you disable the automatic revocation for ADB authorizations after 7 days.

Current bugs

The Android 11 feature list

Entirely new Android 11 features

• Power menu stuff
  • Wallet
  • Smart home controls
• New refresh rate overlay developer option looks like Fraps: On Android 11, you can trigger an overlay that shows your current refresh rate — useful for things like debugging issues with the new super-smooth high refresh rate displays. Also, it looks kind of like Fraps.
• Built-in screen recording: It's still a bit buggy, but the built-in screen recording first revealed (then disabled) back with Android 10 is back as of the first Android 11 release.
  • Screen recording gets an new UI: We had guessed that the interface was incomplete when the feature landed with DP1, and DP2 delivers an updated look to the built-in screen recorder.
• Context-aware Bluetooth airplane mode: If you're playing music over Bluetooth headphones and you toggle airplane mode, then — gasp — Bluetooth won't turn off, and your headphones will continue to get tunes. That's one of the biggest travel frustrations eliminated. (Technically, this is a modification to an existing feature, but it's a big enough deal that I do not care.)
• Pause gesture for Pixel 4's Motion Sense: A new "dip" gesture that lets you play/pause media was added in Android 11 for the Pixel 4, though the app that delivers the update may end up being distributed outside of the Android 11 previews.
  • Motion Sense gestures as a whole also seem way better in Android 11.
  • This trickled down to Android 10 as part of the March update/2nd Pixel Feature drop, so it's not an Android 11 exclusive feature.
• "Battery share" hints at reverse charging for Pixel 5: A hidden detail in the first Android 11 release shows a new "battery share" feature for reverse charging other devices using your phone — probably wirelessly, like with Samsung's Wireless Powershare. If they're adding it now, there's a decent chance we'll see it debut with a future Pixel.
• Shows you your headphones' Bluetooth codec support: Rather than trusting spec sheets or sniffing around with Wireshark, Android 11 simply shows you which audio codecs your headphones support (via a developer options codec selection menu).
• Notification History: Google's working on a new way to view past notifications as part of the overall notification revamp in Android 11.
• Rear double-tap gesture for Pixel phones: Android 11 has a hidden feature that creates a new double-tap gesture, customizable for a handful of features, giving Pixels (and perhaps other Android phones) a brand new gesture/trigger for actions.
• Multiple audio device playback might be coming: Nothing is user-facing or working yet, but details found deep in DP2 imply we might get simultaneous audio playback from multiple output devices in a future Android 11 release.
• Call recording for third-party apps might be coming: Teardown details indicate we might get system-level support for call recording in third-party dialer apps.
• Android 11 gets a trashcan: Apps can throw away files without actually deleting them, allowing you 30 days to change your mind or recover them before they're really gone.
• Devices launching with Android 11 will require seamless updates: Phones that debut running Android 11 have no choice but to support seamless updates and A/B partitioning to pass Google's Vendor Test Suite and ship with Google apps, effectively making it a requirement.
• Block Store will make logging in to all your accounts across apps and services on new phones a one-tap deal — if developers implement it: Android 11 has a new "Block Store" API (together with a "One Tap" cross-platform sign-in system) which will make signing in to all your stuff on a new phone as easy as pulling down your cloud backup during the setup process. That is, if developers actually use it.
• Ethernet tethering: You can share a tethered internet connection via a USB Ethernet dongle, rather than just over a USB cable.

Visual tweaks

• Android 11's massive notification overhaul
  • Conversations
  • Notification History
  • Bubbles
  • Media controls
    • Media control tweaks: This is a developer option as of Beta 1, but Google is bringing a smaller version of the media control notification to the quick settings section of the notification shade, plus an expanded set of controls to the expanded quick settings shade. It also brings a carousel for multiple sets of simultaneous controls and quick access to a (slightly redesigned) output picker.
  • Hidden test splits notifications from Quick Settings: Like the olden days of Android 4.X, Google is apparently testing splitting notifications off from Quick Settings, though the change isn't user-facing yet, and may not go anywhere.
  • Notifications pick up extra padding, slightly tweaked look: Android 11 DP2 increased padding between notification sections, giving bigger gaps between labeled notification types.
  • Option to hide silent notifications in the status bar: If you hate the icons that still appear from silent notifications in the status bar, they can be turned off in DP2.
  • Persistent/ongoing notifications can be hidden: Notifications in DP3 can be swiped away, where they'll appear sort of minimized inside an "apps active in background" section. 
• Do Not Disturb menu gets reorganized: It's a new Android version, and Google wouldn't be Google if they didn't find a way to tweak something about Do Not Disturb again. This time it's a reorganization around three types of notifications: from People, Apps, and Alarms and other sources.
• Hidden option to change Quick Settings icon colors: With an ADB command, you can enable/disable the feature, and additional commands can assign specific colors. More on that here.
• Always-on display clock style customizations: Only one option as of DP2, but the "styles & wallpaper" menu in settings now has a tab for customizing the clock visible when using the always-on display.
• Updated wallpaper picker in "styles & wallpaper" menu: DP2 adds a gallery-like interface for choosing wallpapers in the styles & wallpaper menu in settings.
• Force full-screen apps option: New "tap to restart this app and go full screen" option for apps that don't properly scale to taller aspect ratios.

Privacy and security changes

• Temporary/one-time app permissions: Android 11 adds the option to grant some permissions "Only this time," so you can continue to decide on a case-by-case basis.
• Scoped Storage is back: Introduced in Android Q, we got a one-year reprieve before Scoped Storage goes into effect, and it will debut with Android 11. It may be slower, and it will interfere with some legacy operations, but Google champions the effect it will have on user privacy, better sandboxing app storage. Some apps may also be able to secure exemptions, like file managers and backup apps.
• Repeatedly denying permission requests will block them: If an application requests a permission twice, and it's denied by the user both times, the app will be blocked from requesting the permission again.
• Extra tap to grant overlay permissions: Overlay-based attacks are a serious concern for the Android platform. Starting in Android 11, apps that need you to grant it can't simply take you to the toggle, they can only dump you to the level before it, where you have to then navigate to the option and turn it on yourself. It's just one extra tap, but it might make a difference for those blindly granting permissions to malware.
• No more background location access: Although apps can request an exemption, Google is pressuring developers to stop letting apps request continuous location access, so they can't gather that information in the background, only while they're running and you are aware of them. All new apps must meet this requirement by August, and in November, any that don't meet the requirement will be booted from the Play Store.
• "Require eyes to be open" setting for face unlock on Pixel 4: This showed up in Android 11 DP2 first.
• Unused app permissions are automatically revoked after some time: If you don't use an app for long enough (and we don't know how long that's supposed to be yet), it will eventually lose permissions you've granted it.
  • Furthermore, all permissions are set to revoke in this manner by default as of DP4, though the change may have reverted in Beta 1, and we aren't sure if the original change was a bug/intentional or not.

Modifications to existing features

• Pixel Launcher changes
• Screenshots
• Dark theme picks up sunset and custom time triggers: When Google finally gave Android a dark theme last year, it was missing a much-needed option for an automatic trigger — you know, so your phone doesn't blind you at night, but you can still have that white-on-black theme for easier daytime visibility. Well, it's a thing now.
  • Most of this (barring one trigger) trickled down to Android 10 as part of the March update/2nd Pixel Feature drop. It might not make its way to other phones until Android 11, but technically Android 10 got it as well.
• Apps using the camera can mute notifications: To prevent a rogue vibration or notification sound from ruining a long-planned shot or clip, camera-using apps can prevent your phone from firing off a notification.
• Project Mainline upgrade: The system Google introduced last year with Android 10, which enabled system components to be updated via the Play Store, is expanding to support updating more different system modules, bringing the count to 20. The non-technical summary is that even if you don't get Android updates from your phone's manufacturer, your phone can stay secure and get some new features separately.
• Pinning apps in the share sheet/menu is back: Introduced with Nougat and killed with Android 10, now that the share sheet has been redesigned, you can pin apps for frequent use again.
• Option to increase touch sensitivity for Pixel 4: This may end up being exclusive to the Pixel 4 (so far, it is), and it may not work right now, but Android 11 brought us a toggle to increase the sensitivity of the touch screen for use with things like screen protectors. Other phones by other manufacturers have had similar settings for some time.
• Hidden test integrating media controls into Quick Settings: A manually enabled test in Android 11 shows that Google might be experimenting with moving media controls into the Quick Settings menu. It looks... pretty weird right now.
• Back gesture sensitivity setting changes: It might not actually do anything yet, but a hidden activity showing sensitivity options for the "fully gestural navigation" back gesture was spotted in Android 11, similar to the one that leaked in Android 10, and which was later removed.
• Car crash detection comes to older Pixels via Android 11 app: Thanks to the version of the Personal Safety app included in Android 11, you can sideload car crash detection functionality onto older Pixels. We even tested it as working in a "simulated" crash, though it might still be geographically restricted, or have other limits in functionality.
• Opening links in another app is just one tap now, not two: Settings for "open links with" still don't stick if an app updates, but opening a given link/intent in an app is now just one tap, instead of two taps (i.e, tapping the app's name then tapping "just once").
  • As with many other features on this list, Android 10 received this feature as well as part of the March update/2nd Pixel Feature Drop, though many phones may not get it until Android 11.
• New volume key magnification shortcut.
• DNS server issues get labeled as such: Rather than simply give you an unhelpful "no internet" notification, Android 11 lets you know if your custom DNS server might be the culprit behind connectivity issues.
• Files by Google replaces the old Files app (but not entirely): Though the old original AOSP files app still handles some file-picking duties and a few other things, it's lost its place in the app drawer. The only user-facing file manager in DP2 is Files by Google.
• File picker gets new sort options: Again, though it was replaced in the app drawer, the AOSP file app still handles some things like file picking, and it picked up two new sort options in DP2: "Large files" for sorting by chonk, and "this wee" for sorting by recent creation/modification.
• Confirm SIM deletion toggle: DP2 adds an option to confirm deleting eSIMs.
• Picture-in-picture resizing might be coming: A teardown of DP2 indicates we might be able to resize picture-in-picture windows in the future.
  • And it's here as of DP4.
• Volume key accessibility lock screen shortcut: It's labeled as "experimental," but a new accessibility shortcut that uses the volume keys from the lock screen has been added in DP2. That could make the process of unlocking your device easier if you rely on accessibility tools to use your phone.
• 4GB filesize limit for videos is gone: Apps may not take advantage of it yet, and there can be other device-specific limitations, but the ancient and arbitrary limit is no longer present.
• Files app on Android 11 picks AOSP file manager features: It's not an Android 11 feature, per se, but the Files app has picked up the AOSP file manager's ability to access storage sources in other apps like Dropbox.
• Voice Access improvements: Android's accessibility feature now understands the context for your commands. It can read you the content on your screen, and respond to commands based on that content contextually, rather than through numbers for interactive elements, as it did previously.
• Emergency alerts in Spanish, plus Do Not Disturb alert exceptions: You can configure in Android 11 Beta 1 to receive alerts in Spanish (when possible), and a new setting explicitly allows alerts to be exempt from Do Not Disturb (though they sometimes were before, it wasn't something you could adjust).
• Sideloading apps is about to get a bit more tedious: Android 11 restarts apps that try to install other apps after you enable the "allow from this source" setting for sideloading them. Google claims it's working as intended, we claim that's stupid.
• Gesture to bring back a closed app in recents/multitasking: A swipe down from the top of the menu restores the most recently cleared app, if you're quick. 
• Independent left/right gesture navigation sensitivity setting: You can fine-tune it to make the edge gestures fit your use better.
• Recents/multitasking loses app suggestions, gets screenshot, share, and select buttons: Faster access to those features, but we lose the old app suggestions.
• Volume menu renamed: It's "Sound" now.
• Flower and Hexagon shapes for Pixel Themes.

Under the hood/developer/API changes

• Developers will get a bit more time to fix things for Android 11: Google is giving us an extra "platform stability milestone" with final SDK/NDK APIs changes, so developers rushing to build for Android 11 have until June before things are finalized. Apps on the Play Store also don't have to be updated to support the changes until the end of 2021.
• Better support for "waterfall" curved-edge displays: A new API augmenting the existing display cutout API will help developers better build apps for phones with curved screens, letting them exclude certain elements from hitting those curved, prone-to-accidental-touch sides when required.
• More restricted and undocumented APIs getting the boot: Developers using non-public APIs for stuff will need to make sure their apps keep working with new restrictions in Android 11.
• "Overscan" ADB command doesn't work in Android 11: We aren't sure if it's an intentional change or not (Google hasn't answered our inquiry), but Android 11 has killed the ADB overscan command, used by many third-party apps that modify the navigation bar.
• Support for "soft" reboots: It doesn't save that much time right now, but a slightly faster way to restart userspace software while keeping lower-level systems running has been added in Android 11. This could be related to...
• A "Resume on Reboot" feature that allows your phone to install OTAs and resume apps in the background before you unlock it, so you don't miss notifications.
• Generic System Image/DSU installer: It doesn't seem to work right now, but a built-in installer for GSIs is present in Android 11.
• Built-in app compatibility tester: Android 11 has tools to better help developers test platform changes, individually enabling and disabling them to see how they might interact with apps.
• Wireless ADB: Non-developer-types won't care, but Android 11 added proper wireless debugging with code- and QR-based pairing.
• GPS improvements: We knew it was coming to the Pixel 4 with Android 11, and Google says Android 11 will deliver enhanced GNSS performance for even greater location accuracy.
• More display cutout options for developers: Adding onto the notch cutout option Android P got, Android Q DP2 gets "Punch Hole" and "Waterfall" cutout settings, which developers can use to emulate those obstructions on other devices. Good for playing with layouts and designs without having every type of device on-hand.
• Android Flash Tool compatibility: DP2 picks up support for the new Android Flash Tool for relatively easy installation from a browser, no ADB required.
• Expanded support for authentication prompts: It's pretty technical, but Android 11 DP2 adds "Expanded support for authentication prompts," which we think means that apps can use more types of authentication mechanisms to secure user data.
• New IPSec VPN options: Additional encryption options for VPNs are available in DP2.
• ANGLE preferences return: DP2 adds preferences for Chrome's ANGLE WebGL/OpenGL ES.
• New "Enhanced Connectivity" toggle: Does nothing yet as of DP2, lives in developer options.
• New "HD audio toggle: Currently switches between SBC and AAC audio codecs in developer options.
• Wireless debugging quick setting tile.
• 5G state detection API that will let apps know if you're connected to a 5G connection.
• Hinge angle detection API so apps can better support UI tweaks in different configurations on foldables.
• (Better) variable refresh rate support for high framerate displays.
• Neural network API improvements.
• Developers can better see how and why their apps crashed thanks to new "Crash Reasons Reporting" in the exit reasons API.
• ADB Incremental makes it easier and faster for developers to push updates and tweaks to in-development apps over ADB.
• Data access auditing: New APIs developers can use to follow permissions access below the granularity of the app and track down which bits of the app (like third-party libraries) might be abusing those permissions.
• Disable ADB authorization timeout: A setting in developer options that lets you disable the automatic revocation for ADB authorizations after 7 days.

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