One month later than planned, Google finally released the first public beta for Android 11. Google had scheduled to announce the beta on June 3, but eventually delayed the announcement due to the Black Lives Matter movement and demonstrations currently taking place in America.
Wednesday's announcement mentions three key features of Android 11: Communication, privacy and better control of connected devices.
Google has dedicated a section of notifications to its messaging apps, putting all your incoming messages in one place so you can view, manage and reply to them wherever you want. There is also an option to mark conversations as high prioritys, which will allow notifications to appear even when Do Not Disturb is on.
Bubbles finally makes his debut. Before we saw Bubbles with Android 10 before the remove η Google. Αν έχετε χρησιμοποιήσει ποτέ τη δυνατότητα συνομιλίας του Facebook Messenger, τότε το Bubbles θα σας φανεί πολύ οικείο. Ουσιαστικά, μπορείτε να δημιουργήσετε μια shortcut for specific conversations that will stay present on your screen no matter what you're doing. Small circular icons will be able to move around your screen, and when you choose to tap on one, it will disconnect, allowing you to switch between conversations with Bubbles without leaving the current app you're in.
Android 10 has many privacy features along with a special privacy section in the Settings app With Android 11, Google makes privacy control even better, or so the company claims.
It states that users will have more control over their data. A very useful privacy feature in Android 11 is that if the phone detects that you have not been using an app for a while, it will automatically get all its permissions. The next time you open the application, you will need to approve its permission requests again.
When it comes to your smart home and connected devices, Google is making things even easier to access data control. You can press and hold the power button to activate a new screen that shows your Google Pay cards and boarding passes, as well as all the connected devices you've linked to your Google account. For example, if you have a smart lock on your door, you can quickly check its status, lock or unlock it very easily.
There are also new media controls, with shortcut switches that make it easy to switch between the applications your device uses to play music. In the example of Google, you can quickly switch between listening from Pixel Buds to Nest Hub.
The first version of the public beta is currently available for the Pixel 2 and any newer device. Google says more devices will be added to the beta channel in the coming weeks. I do not recommend installing the beta on your main device, there will definitely be a lot of bugs and the battery life will be bad. But if you have to, you can sign up for the program beta from here.
