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Most Android users are walking around with smartphones running Android 10 or lower, but not you. No sir.
Instead, you’re one of the lucky ones with a phone that goes to 11, and only some of the best Android phones allow it. That’s one stronger than Android 10, based on our scribbled calculations, which means it will have a host of new features at its disposal.
We’re going to take a look at some of these fancy new features below, so you can make sure you’re getting the most out of Google’s latest and greatest mobile operating system. If you’re not currently using an Android 11 smartphone but just want to satisfy your curiosity, that’s fine too.
From enhanced messages to hidden Easter eggs, screen recordings, and more, there’s a lot to discover, so let’s jump right in.
1. A little more conversation
Our phones can become a messy mess of notifications ranging from direct messages, group WhatsApp updates, game notifications, breaking news, and much, much more.
It’s easy to miss important messages amid this flurry of information, which is why the new conversations tab in Android 11 is an absolute boon for bringing much-needed organization into your life.
Swiping down from the top in Android 11 now splits information into two groups: notifications and conversations. The former are general app notifications, while the latter are made up of all notifications from chat apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Twitter, allowing you to prioritize them.
2. A little less conversation
While it’s nice to stay in touch, we all have at least a few WhatsApp groups with keyboard-happy members who don’t quite know when to put down their phones to accept much-needed silence. Fortunately, Android 11 allows you to prioritize the important messages and silence the less important ones; think of the pixelated Facebook memes sent by your mother, for example.
Long-pressing on a conversation in the drop-down menu will present three options: Priority, Alert, and Mute.
Priority conversations will always appear at the top, with a yellow highlight around their icon. You can also choose priority conversations to ignore the Do Not Disturb rule, which is useful if you are expecting an important message.
Alerts treat notifications in the normal way, while Silent will prevent certain threads from sending alerts to your phone. They will still appear in your notifications, but at the bottom of the list. Making use of all three options should help eliminate the headache associated with chatting groups on WhatsApp, while still drawing your attention to important messages.
3. Make bubbles
Since we’re on the topic of conversations, Android 11 also has built-in support for chat bubbles, a feature that will be familiar to Facebook Messenger users.
When you receive a new message, swipe down from the top and check your chat notification. If the app supports bubbles, there will be a small circle in the lower right corner of the notification. Tap it and it creates a chat bubble – a floating circular icon that stays on top of whatever else you’re doing on the screen.
New messages will appear in the bubble without taking up the entire screen; touching the message allows you to reply. This is particularly useful if you want to carry on a conversation while continuing with another task or watching a video. To discard a bubble, simply hold it down and drag it to the ‘X’ that appears at the bottom of the screen.
4. Screen recording is (finally) here
The built-in screen recording functionality is something we’ve been waiting to see built into Android for years, and while it’s been available on phones like OnePlus for a while, we’re pleased to see it finally included as standard in this latest version. Android version.
Just pull down from the top to expand the notification bar quick settings and tap the Screen Record icon. When you do, you will have the option to choose whether to record audio using the microphone or the device’s audio. Once done, a three-second timer will appear, before everything is logged.
While our main use case will be recording technical tutorials, it can be useful for people looking to show parents how to navigate through complicated Android settings, or for those who want to record gameplay during a game session. particularly agitated.
5. A second chance
We’ve all had the experience of swiping our finger on a notification the moment it pops up. Sometimes it’s pure instinct, honed by your primal, panther reflexes. At other times, it may be the result of detecting an email that contains words like “overdue” or “Christmas plans,” which you delete in a panic.
Unfortunately, however, these wrong swipes can get annoying, especially if you rely on notifications as a form of to-do list. Fortunately, Android 11 includes an option that allows you to quickly open your notification history. Tap the History button at the bottom of the notification screen and you will receive all your notifications from the last 24 hours, so you can easily see what you missed.
6. Embrace the dark
We’re big fans of dark themes in apps as they tend to be less harsh on the eyes and can even help squeeze a bit of battery life if you’re using a phone with an OLED screen.
However, if you find yourself constantly switching between dark and light themes, Android 11 will make your life a little easier by offering the ability to auto-schedule dark themes.
You can choose to embrace the darkness from dusk to dawn, keeping your eyes from being exposed to the intense blue lights at night, or opt for a moment of your choice. Just scroll down the Quick Settings menu from the top of the screen, hit the dark theme icon, and select the scheduling option of your choice.
7. Pin ‘n’ Share
One of the things we’ve always liked the most about Android (yes, we have a list) is its robust sharing features, which were around long before iPhone users had similar capabilities.
The only downside is that selecting the app you want to share can be a complicated process. If you have a lot of apps, you might end up scrolling through a few pages of options before selecting the one you want to share.
Android 11 makes this process easy by letting you pin your favorite / most used sharing apps to the front of the pack, saving you precious seconds every time you share something. Simple, but incredibly effective.
Android 11 comes with improved multimedia controls that are less intrusive than before. For starters, they now appear in the Quick Settings bar in the form of a mini-control setup that has the name of what’s currently playing, along with the basic play / pause, previous and next track options.
The new positioning is great as it makes the area below less cluttered, leaving more room for your notifications. Drag further down and the media controls will expand to the top of the screen, providing more options, such as the ability to “Like” a track.
If you have a podcast, YouTube, and / or music app like Spotify open, you can also swipe to get individual controls for each app, which is great news for auditory multitaskers.
9. App Suggestions (pixels only)
Pixel owners have a chance to gloat here, as this feature is currently only supported on Google’s Pixel phones.
If you’re currently using a Pixel device running Android 11, you can let Google’s artificial intelligence predict which app you’re likely to use next, based on past usage at different times of the day. For example, if you tend to wake up your brain with a cup of coffee and cat GIFs every morning, you’ll find the Reddit app included in the dock.
Later in the day, around lunchtime, it could be replaced by the Twitter icon, because that’s when you’re likely to come out on a post-lunch spiel about the state of the gaming economy in Destiny 2 (or whatever your routine is).
You also have the option of removing certain apps from the selection group or turning the feature off entirely, but it’s definitely worth a try if you have a Pixel in your pocket.
10. Power Button 2.0
Android 11 overloads your power button, allowing you to do more than just power off or restart your phone. Holding it down now opens a new screen, adding additional options beyond the simple and powerful.
These include a shortcut to using Google Pay, making it even easier to quickly buy sandwiches for lunch at the local grocery store of your choice. Below that, Android 11 will also pre-populate a new Home section with up to six of your smart devices connected, allowing you to quickly and easily control your lights, thermostat, and more, in an instant. Of course, you can edit this list with your most used devices, if you wish.
Overall, this is one of our favorite additions to Android 11, allowing you to access useful features without having to launch apps separately. Well done, Google.
11. Make friends with a cat
Android has long been famous for its built-in Easter eggs, and version 11 is no exception. Follow the steps below and you will soon be the proud companion of a host of virtual feline friends.
- Launch Settings, then go to ‘About phone’
- Tap ‘Android Version’
- On this screen, repeatedly press ‘Android version’
- Turn up the volume dial that appears to 11
- After three tries, you should see the number 11 appear, with a small cat emoji at the bottom of the screen.
- Press and hold the power button
- Select ‘Add controls’
- Choose ‘See other apps’ at the bottom
- Choose ‘Cat Controls’
- Select the water bubbler, food, and toy.
- Return to the power menu screen
- Select the down arrow next to ‘Start’ and select ‘Cat Controls’
- Slide your finger across the water bubble to fill it, touch the food bowl and touch the cat
- Question what you are doing with your life while you wait for a virtual numbered cat to be added to your collection.
