Android 11 review
Our Verdict
Android 11 marks another useful nonetheless insignificant upgrade for Google's mobile OS. While the redesigned media, screenshot and permissions controls are convenient, the additions to messaging and notifications aren't where they demand to be to make a difference even so.
For
- Screen recording now built in
- Useful new screenshot and media controls
- Temporary permissions assistance security
Confronting
- Bubbles not active for everyone nevertheless
- Notification groups aren't intuitive
- Not available to everyone all the same
Tom's Guide Verdict
Android xi marks another useful all the same insignificant upgrade for Google's mobile Os. While the redesigned media, screenshot and permissions controls are convenient, the additions to messaging and notifications aren't where they need to be to make a difference yet.
Pros
- +
Screen recording now congenital in
- +
Useful new screenshot and media controls
- +
Temporary permissions help security
- +
Cons
- -
Bubbling not agile for anybody notwithstanding
- -
Notification groups aren't intuitive
- -
Not available to anybody yet
Which devices support Android 11
Android 11 is currently rolling out to Google's Pixel phones (from 2017's Pixel ii and ii XL to the new Pixel 4a) as well as the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus viii Pro. It'll likely reach Samsung'south Galaxy handsets closer to the terminate of the year or early part of 2021, with priority being granted to the Milky way S20 and Note 20 lines, equally they're the latest flagships from the company.
If y'all have a Pixel device but are still waiting for the new software to land on your device, check out our guide on how to get Android 11 right at present.
Some other yr, another update to the world's well-nigh popular mobile operating system — and this year, that means Android 11. Only what could Google possibly add together to a platform that's been kick for more than a decade, that seemingly already contains every characteristic under the sunday?
That'south where Android 11 comes in. As we've come to await from Android updates in recent years, version 11 opts for smaller changes rather than transformative ones, that brand navigating Google'due south OS a bit more intuitive and convenient. Redesigned screenshots and media playback controls, a new way to message friends and useful tweaks to app permissions may non be earth-shattering additions, but they're nonetheless appreciated.
Or, at to the lowest degree appreciated by those who tin can get them. Like with all Android updates, information technology'll exist awhile before devices that aren't made past Google — similar the Galaxy Annotation 20, for example — gets to join in on the Android 11 party. (The lonely exceptions to that are OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo and Realme, which have impressively already issued Android 11 updates to their latest models.)
Our Android 11 review highlights where Google's latest software succeeds, and which features need a footling more work.
Android eleven review: The all-time new features
While Android 11 feels like more of a bourgeois update than, say, iOS 14 and its redesigned widgets and new App Library interface, Google's OS does innovate some actually welcome improvements. Here are the major ones:
New media controls: Android has always been good well-nigh etching out a niggling space for playback controls in the notification pane, for currently playing media. It's an approach I much prefer to Apple tree'due south, which splits upward some media controls across the lock screen and others in the Control Center, with neither looking all that cracking or beingness particularly groovy at conveying data.
What'south new nearly Android 11's approach is that Google has lifted these controls out of the cluster of notifications in which they used to sit down and given them priority in a space simply underneath your quick toggles. In addition to skip, pause and play actions, a background that's color-matched to album art and a progress bar that appears when expanded, there'south also a new button that allows you lot to instantly alter the audio device currently playing the media in question.
This makes pivoting from your phone'due south speakers to a Bluetooth speaker or a pair of wireless earbuds really, really piece of cake. And information technology's a clever shortcut to toss in now, as people have more continued devices at their disposal within their home than e'er before. Android 11 will make information technology easier for you to apply them.
New screenshot interface: Information technology wasn't difficult to markup a recently-captured screenshot through the notification that would pop upwardly later on taking 1 in Android 10. But the notification itself was quite obtrusive. Information technology'd languish upwards top for seconds at a time, unless yous either dismissed information technology or interacted with it, perhaps covering pertinent data all the while.
Android 11 fixes that. At present, taking a screenshot produces a thumbnail in the lower-left corner — and it happens quickly. This is proficient of course, considering whatsoever delays that impede yous from snagging a clip of something and firing information technology off to a friend tend to be more unwelcome than not.
Next to that thumbnail are share and edit buttons, as well every bit an "X" button that will simply dismiss the screenshot interface element, but not delete the image itself. It'south all very slick, fast, intuitive and looks bully.
However, I have one minor issue with the approach Google'due south taken here. 1 of the best things about the way iOS handles screenshots is that it allows you to delete any you capture immediately later sending information technology off. This is really handy, because information technology means your photograph library won't be flooded with screenshots of old, out-of-context snippets of information and memes that you really don't need living on your phone for days or weeks until you finally get around to deleting them. You tin can rapidly delete screenshots in Android 11 besides, only the software doesn't make it easy, equally you have to press or gesture back a agglomeration of times in succession after sharing a screenshot to return to the markup screen, where yous can then striking the little trash icon. A tiny frustration, only one I'd personally similar to see addressed.
Screen recording born: If you've been by and large using Android phones from the likes of Samsung and OnePlus over the last several years, you may never take noticed that Android has lacked native screen recording features the entire fourth dimension. Merely Pixel users notwithstanding needed to plough to sketchy, oftentimes advertizement-ridden 3rd-party solutions to capture activity on their device — until now.
Android xi finally bakes screen recording correct into Android, and it works very, very well on our Pixel 4a. Information technology's activated from a quick toggle shortcut, and offers options like choosing which audio source yous'd like to back-trail the visual element (your handset'southward microphone versus on-device audio) and whether or not you'd like to highlight taps and gestures. As y'all're recording, a cherry icon in the status bar reminds y'all that the feature is rolling; to turn information technology off, simply dip back into the notifications pane and tap the relevant item to stop.
One-time permissions and permission resetting: Every yr, it seems like Google and Apple turn up the heat on developers that corruption permissions, by making those permissions more stringent or temporary. With Android 11, users now have the power to grant a unmarried-apply permission for an app they'd like to utilize once or twice, and then maybe never once more.
Android 11 too automatically resets permissions for apps that accept sat on your device fallow for months. If there'southward an app you rarely use anymore — given the pandemic, I find myself taking far fewer Lyfts and Ubers than I used to — this feature instantly justifies itself. And considering how Uber'due south had a concerning rails tape of abusing location monitoring in the by, I'd say this particular Android 11 improver is overdue.
Android 11 review: What needs work
Every software update is a work in progress, but as well many significant features in Android 11 needed a piffling more attention before the software's last release.
Bubbles: Long teased over successive Android updates simply never brought to the public until now, Bubbling is basically Google's version of Chat Heads — the Facebook Messenger feature that creates shortcuts for conversation threads that float higher up whatever'south on screen and persist from app to app. The departure with Bubbles is, of course, that this feature extends to messaging apps that aren't Facebook's, including the congenital-in Android Letters app for texting and RCS Chat, too equally WhatsApp and others.
I don't know if Bubbles are necessarily something that we need on top of all the other distractions and information overload we bargain with on our phones' screens, though that comes down to personal preference. How much mileage you lot get out of this characteristic will ultimately differ on a case-past-case basis. Simply I tin't even get the matter to work on the Pixel 4a I'm using.
In my testing Bubbles don't seem to announced at all, no matter what I do. The feature is agile in Android's settings; it'southward turned on in the built-in Messages app, and I've even marked some conversations as Priority, which is supposed to ensure that new texts e'er arrive in bubble course. And yet, the floating heads of friends and family continue to elude me.
Nevertheless, it'south worth pointing out that even if Bubbles did function every bit designed on my device, not every app supports the feature every bit of yet. Telegram and the aforementioned Facebook Messenger are among the few.
Notification grouping: Along with the requisite updates that bring more granular control over permissions, every Android update unremarkably tweaks notification behavior in some way, forcing users to get accustomed to a new arrangement before Google inevitably adjusts it yet once again the post-obit year.
As a longtime Android user, I notice that pattern grating fifty-fifty if the ideas at the heart of the updates are typically proficient. Android 11 breaks conversations out of notifications from other kinds of apps, giving them their ain niggling space to take hold of your eye. This is reflected to greater result when you set a thread with a particular individual or group to "Priority," at which point those notifications volition be given higher placement in the pane and also take upward space in the condition bar with a distinctive icon that reflects their avatar, rather than a generic new bulletin icon.
That'southward all fine in theory; the problem is that, in my experience, letters don't always separate themselves into the conversations group on their own. In fact, to designate one Android Messages thread every bit a conversation, I actually had to long-printing on the warning for that particular thread and manually add it to a list of conversations in the arrangement settings. That'due south style likewise much work, and it'southward buried in a series of menus that most users volition probably never uncover. This is a notification from a chat app; clearly it'south a chat and should be classified as such. What else could information technology possibly be?
I tin can only assume this, like the issues I've encountered with Bubbles, is not an intended behavior. Hopefully, in time notification grouping will exist smoothed out.
Android 11 review: Other noteworthy features
You'll notice a few other things in Android eleven that are worth highlighting.
Wireless Android Auto for all: This volition only affect you if y'all have a new motorcar that likewise happens to support wireless Android Car. However, if you are amid that small contingent of people, you'll be pleased to know that all Android phones now support Android Auto wirelessly when running Android 11. Previously, only specific devices could connect to vehicles' infotainment displays without the demand for a cablevision.
A more useful power card: Starting time with Android ten, Google punched up the Android power menu to include quick access Google Pay cards and passes, as well as power off, screenshot and restart controls. With Android 11, Google Home-continued accessories now appear on this screen as well. Over again, how useful this is will likely depend on how smart your domicile is, but for those living with a bevy of connected products at their disposal, like lights and smart locks, this could be very convenient indeed.
App suggestions on Pixel home screen: This 1's for Google'south phones only, but a new option now devotes space right above the home screen search bar to the apps your Pixel thinks you lot want to use at whatsoever given moment, deriving its recommendations from contextual cues and bogus intelligence. If this sounds like an overreach to you, don't fret — it's not on by default. While I envision some users may like the feature, personally I consider the bottom 5 apps in my home screen to be the nearly important on my device, and so I'd prefer they remain static.
Android eleven review: Verdict
A worthwhile but inappreciably revolutionary upgrade, Android 11 certainly won't brand the experience of using your Android phone worse. Given the maturity of Google's platform at this point, that's pretty much all you can hope for.
That said, some of its new features — particularly those concerning messaging and notifications — don't seem ironed out quite nonetheless. In fourth dimension they likely will be, which is perhaps a consolation to anyone who has an Android phone that isn't fabricated by Google or OnePlus, and volition accept to expect some time earlier the update rolls out to their handset. Rest assured, you're not missing much here.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/android-11
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