New updates are added on September 9, 2020: Grab your Pixel phones, because Google has released the Android 11 stable update for the Pixel phones. The Android 11 update went through rigorous beta testing and developer previews for several months and now it is time for the users to enjoy the stable Android 11 update on their phones. In an official blog post, Google announced the rollout of the Android 11 update for all the Pixel compatible phones.

Over the beta and developer preview updates, we have noticed and reported several new features that were bound to come with the stable Android 11 update. And note that there are a lot of new features that will keep you excited for the Android 11 update. Here is the complete official list of changes that you will get with the Android 11 update:

[su_spoiler title=”Android 11 Changelog”]

People, Controls, Privacy

People

Android 11 is people-centric and expressive, reimagining the way we have conversations on our phones, and building an OS that can recognize and prioritize the most important people in our lives. For developers, Android 11 helps you build deeper conversational and personal interactions into your apps.

  • Conversation notifications appear in a dedicated section at the top of the shade, with a people-forward design and conversation specific actions, such as opening the conversation as a bubble, creating a conversation shortcut on the home screen, or setting a reminder.
  • Bubbles – Bubbles help users keep conversations in view and accessible while multitasking on their devices. Messaging and chat apps should use the Bubbles API on notifications to enable this in Android 11.
  • Consolidated keyboard suggestions let Autofill apps and Input Method Editors (IMEs) securely offer users context-specific entities and strings directly in an IME’s suggestion strip, where they are most convenient for users.

Controls

Android 11 lets users quickly get to and control all of their smart devices in one space. Developers can use new APIs to help users surface smart devices and control media:

  • Device Controls make it faster and easier than ever for users to access and control their connected devices. Now, by simply long pressing the power button, they’re able to bring up device controls instantly, and in one place. Apps can use a new API to appear in the controls.
  • Media Controls make it quick and convenient for users to switch the output device for their audio or video content, whether it be headphones, speakers, or even their TV.

Privacy

In Android 11, we’re giving users even more control and transparency over sensitive permissions and working to keep devices more secure through faster updates.

  • One-time permission – Now users can give an app access to the device microphone, camera, or location, just for one time. The app can request permissions again the next time the app is used.

  • Background location – Background location now requires additional steps from the user beyond granting runtime permission. If your app needs background location, the system will ensure that you first ask for a foreground location. You can then broaden your access to background location through a separate permission request, and the system will take the user to Settings to complete the permission grant.

  • Also, note that in February we announced that Google Play developers will need to get approval to access background location in their app to prevent misuse. We’re giving developers more time to make changes and won’t be enforcing the policy for existing apps until 2021.

  • Permissions auto-reset – if users haven’t used an app for an extended period of time, Android 11 will “auto-reset” all of the runtime permissions associated with the app and notify the user. The app can request the permissions again the next time the app is used.

  • Scoped storage – We’ve continued our work to better protect the app and user data on external storage, and made further improvements to help developers more easily migrate.

  • Google Play system updates – Launched last year, Google Play system updates help us expedite updates of core OS components to devices in the Android ecosystem. In Android 11, we more than doubled the number of updatable modules, including 12 new modules that will help improve privacy, security, and consistency for users and developers.

  • BiometricPrompt API – Developers can now use the BiometricPrompt API to specify the biometric authenticator strength required by their app to unlock or access sensitive parts of the app. For backward compatibility, we’ve just added these capabilities to the Jetpack Biometric library. We’ll share further updates as the work progresses.

  • Identity Credential API – This will unlock new use cases such as mobile drivers licenses, National ID, and Digital ID. We’re working with various government agencies and industry partners to make sure that Android 11 is ready for digital-first identity experiences.

Helpful innovation

  • Enhanced 5G support – Android 11 includes updated developer support to help you take advantage of the faster speeds and lower latency of 5G networks. You can learn when the user is connected to a 5G network, check whether the connection is metered, and get an estimate of the connection bandwidth. To help you build experiences now for 5G, we’ve also added 5G support in the Android Emulator. To get started with 5G on Android, visit the 5G developer page.
  • New screen types – Device makers are continuing to innovate by bringing exciting new device screens to markets, such as hole-punch and waterfall screens. Android 11 adds support for these in the platform, with APIs to let you optimize your apps. You can manage both hole-punch and waterfall screens using the existing display cutout APIs. You can set a new window layout attribute to use the entire waterfall screen, and a new waterfall insets API helps you manage interaction near the edges.
  • Call screening support – Android 11 helps call-screening apps do more to manage robocalls. Apps can verify an incoming call’s STIR/SHAKEN status (standards that protect against caller ID spoofing) as part of the call details, and they can report a call rejection reason. Apps can also customize a system-provided post-call screen to let users perform actions such as marking a call as spam or adding to contacts.

[/su_spoiler]

If you own a Google Pixel phone or any Pixel device between Pixel 2 or the latest Pixel 4a then you can grab the Android 11 stable update firmware package file from the below download section:

New updates are added on August 7, 2020: Final Beta update of the Android 11 update, i.e. the Android 11 Beta 3 is now live for all the pixel phones. The new update is arriving via OTA and brings tons of new features for the phone.

Download Android 11

  • Pixel 2

  • OTA

  • System Image

  • Pixel 2 XL

  • OTA

  • System Image

  • Pixel 3

  • OTA

  • System Image

  • Pixel 3 XL

  • OTA

  • System Image

  • Pixel 3a

  • OTA

  • System Image

  • Pixel 3a XL

  • OTA

  • System Image

  • Pixel 4

  • OTA

  • System Image

  • Pixel 4 XL

  • OTA

  • System Image

  • Pixel 4a

  • OTA (EMEA & SG carriers) | Others

  • System Image (EMEA & SG carriers) | Others

  • OTA

  • System Image

  • OTA (EMEA & SG carriers) | Others

  • System Image (EMEA & SG carriers) | Others

  • Android 11 Easter Egg

  • Google has now included the Android 11 Easter Egg with a beta 3 update. You can access the easter egg by heading over to Settings > System > About phone > Android version and repeatedly tap on the “Android version” field. You have to turn the circle three times before you can see the 11 logo.

  • Swipe Away Media Player Notifications

  • Media Payback notification are now separated from your normal notification and is placed under the dedicated section under the Quick Settings menu. You have the toggle new settings by heading over to Settings > Sound > Media called “hide player when the media session has ended.” One enabled your media controls will hide when the active session is ended. You can also hide the media controls from the Quick Settings.

  • New Emojis

  • Android 11 Beta 3 adds all the new and latest emojis to the eligible Pixel phones.

  • Power Menu Redesigned

  • The power menu has been redesigned and brings block buttons.

  • Forced 90Hz Option on Pixel 4

  • Pixel 4 was having screen flickering issue with the Android 11 Beta 2 update because the display was adjusting rapidly to change in the screen refresh rate. Now with Android 11 Beta 3 update, there is a dedicated force 90Hz option on the Pixel 4. You can toggle this option under the Developer Options menu.

Here is the official changelog of the Android 11 Beta 3 update:

  • Google has now included the Android 11 Easter Egg with a beta 3 update. You can access the easter egg by heading over to Settings > System > About phone > Android version and repeatedly tap on the “Android version” field. You have to turn the circle three times before you can see the 11 logo.

  • Media Payback notification are now separated from your normal notification and is placed under the dedicated section under the Quick Settings menu. You have the toggle new settings by heading over to Settings > Sound > Media called “hide player when the media session has ended.” One enabled your media controls will hide when the active session is ended. You can also hide the media controls from the Quick Settings.

  • Android 11 Beta 3 adds all the new and latest emojis to the eligible Pixel phones.

  • The power menu has been redesigned and brings block buttons.

  • Pixel 4 was having screen flickering issue with the Android 11 Beta 2 update because the display was adjusting rapidly to change in the screen refresh rate. Now with Android 11 Beta 3 update, there is a dedicated force 90Hz option on the Pixel 4. You can toggle this option under the Developer Options menu.

[su_spoiler title=”Changelog”]

Top resolved issues

The following issues have been resolved in Android 11 Beta 3:

General

  • Package visibility: When you declare an intent filter for browser apps, your app gains visibility into browser apps on the device. In previous versions, this intent filter gave apps visibility into a broader set of apps.
  • Fixed app stability issues that were caused by upgrading the version of SQLite that is used by the Android platform from 3.22 to 3.28.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented some apps from connecting to the internet when the device was using cellular data.
  • Fixed an issue that interfered with some apps’ ability to determine a device’s GPS location.
  • Fixed an issue with SurfaceTexture that was causing some apps to crash intermittently.

Google apps

  • The Google app, Google search bar, or Discover feed no longer sometimes freeze or become unresponsive.
  • Some labels in the Pixel launcher Home settings no longer display incorrectly.
  • Users are no longer blocked from upgrading the Photos app to the latest version.

Top open issues

Users might encounter the following issues when using Android 11 Beta 3:

  • On Pixel devices when using another default launcher, gesture navigation actions can sometimes launch the Pixel launcher instead of the default launcher.

  • On some devices, the Camera app can sometimes crash when a user attempts to take a photo or video.

  • The screen sometimes fails to auto-rotate when using the YouTube app.

New updates are added on July 9, 2020: Google has now pushed the Android 11 Beta 2 update for all the Google Pixel phones. Notably, this update will soon be available to other OEMs phone after some tweaks by their smartphone manufacturers. This new Beta 2 update focusses more on the Platform Stability release, meaning that this new Android 11 Beta 2 update gives system stability more priority. Well, talk about aesthetic changes, users who installed Android 11 Beta 2 will notice new features like media player in Quick Settings, new ripple animation in media player control, screen recorder can now record both internal/external audio at the same time, less option is Share menu, pinned apps now show pinned icon, a new icon to launch conversation bubble, PIP new window resize option, new Select option in recent window option, conversations has a dedicated settings page and much more.

Here is the official changelog of this new Android 11 Beta 2 update arriving on Pixel phones:

Top resolved issues The following issues have been resolved in Android 11 Beta 2:

  • General
  • Gestures no longer stop working in a full screen app when a user has resumed the app after gesturing to go to the device Home screen. (Issue #158962093)
  • The keyboard no longer fails to display in some cases when it would normally be triggered. (Issue #158740910)
  • Audio is no longer distorted when played through the speakers on some devices. (Issue #158718054)
  • Recent apps no longer display too high on the screen when accessing the app overview. (Issue #158988473)
  • The volume slider no longer shifts down when toggling vibration mode using the volume buttons. (Issue #159298241)
  • Screenshots, sharing, and text selection now work correctly from the app overview. (Issue #159421062)
  • Google apps
  • App updates and downloads in the Play Store no longer get stuck in the Download Pending status for some users. (Issue #158967097)
  • Users can now see their recent images when using the gallery view in Messages. (Issue #159196989)

Top open issues Users might encounter the following issues when using Android 11 Beta 2:

  • Gestures no longer stop working in a full screen app when a user has resumed the app after gesturing to go to the device Home screen. (Issue #158962093)

  • The keyboard no longer fails to display in some cases when it would normally be triggered. (Issue #158740910)

  • Audio is no longer distorted when played through the speakers on some devices. (Issue #158718054)

  • Recent apps no longer display too high on the screen when accessing the app overview. (Issue #158988473)

  • The volume slider no longer shifts down when toggling vibration mode using the volume buttons. (Issue #159298241)

  • Screenshots, sharing, and text selection now work correctly from the app overview. (Issue #159421062)

  • App updates and downloads in the Play Store no longer get stuck in the Download Pending status for some users. (Issue #158967097)

  • Users can now see their recent images when using the gallery view in Messages. (Issue #159196989)

  • General

  • The notification drawer doesn’t appear when a user swipes down from the top of the screen. (Issue #159768228)

  • WiFi connection disconnects and reconnects intermittently. (Issue #159583439)

  • Some Pixel 4/XL devices that have taken more than one Android 11 update might not be able to OTA back to Android 10. This issue is not specific to Beta 2. (Issue #158765677)

  • Google apps

  • The Google app, Google search bar, or Discover feed sometimes freeze or become unresponsive. (Issue #159192774)

  • Video recording is sometimes interrupted when using the Camera app. (Issue #159185509)

  • The Dialer app sometimes uses the speakerphone as the default audio device. (Issue #159203518)

  • In the Messages app, the RCS chat features sometimes get stuck in the Connecting state. (Issue #159786769)

  • Known issues: Android Platform

  • Based on our testing, you might encounter the following issues when using Android 11 Beta 2. These issues are already known, so there’s no need to file issue additional reports for similar issues.

  • Sometimes after a user makes a VoIP call with an app, they can no longer hear or record audio if they make another VoIP call, make a video call, or capture video in the same app or another app.

  • The notification drawer doesn’t appear when a user swipes down from the top of the screen. (Issue #159768228)

  • WiFi connection disconnects and reconnects intermittently. (Issue #159583439)

  • Some Pixel 4/XL devices that have taken more than one Android 11 update might not be able to OTA back to Android 10. This issue is not specific to Beta 2. (Issue #158765677)

  • The Google app, Google search bar, or Discover feed sometimes freeze or become unresponsive. (Issue #159192774)

  • Video recording is sometimes interrupted when using the Camera app. (Issue #159185509)

  • The Dialer app sometimes uses the speakerphone as the default audio device. (Issue #159203518)

  • In the Messages app, the RCS chat features sometimes get stuck in the Connecting state. (Issue #159786769)

  • Based on our testing, you might encounter the following issues when using Android 11 Beta 2. These issues are already known, so there’s no need to file issue additional reports for similar issues.

  • Sometimes after a user makes a VoIP call with an app, they can no longer hear or record audio if they make another VoIP call, make a video call, or capture video in the same app or another app.

New updates are added on June 11, 2020: So, finally, after a short delay, Google has now pushed the Android 11 Beta 1 update for the Google Pixel devices. Notably, this is the beta 1 of the 4 beta updates that Google plans to push for the Pixel devices, before finally making the stable update available. There are tons of changes in the Android 11 Beta 1 update and this information was announced official by Google on Twitter. Here is what the tweet reads:

Today we announced:

🎉 Android 11 Beta 1🛠 Android Studio 4.1 Beta⚙️ Android Studio 4.2 Canary📚 New Android Jetpack libraries🚀 Jetpack Compose Developer Preview 2▶️ Play Console Beta➕ More

Read → https://t.co/tD8f21lbAFAll talks → https://t.co/Efjxz9VwDm#Android11 pic.twitter.com/L3b1KHtzcM

— Android Developers 🔜 at #GoogleIO (@AndroidDev) June 10, 2020

As far as all the changes are concerned, here is the list of changes as mentioned by Google that you will get after installing the Android 11 Beta 1 update on your Google Pixel phone:

 

  • Conversation notifications appear in a dedicated section at the top of the shade, with a people-forward design and conversation specific actions, such as opening the conversation as a bubble, creating a conversation shortcut on the home screen, or setting a reminder.
  • Bubbles help users to keep conversations in view and accessible while multitasking. Messaging and chat apps should use the Bubbles API on notifications to enable this in Android 11.
  • Consolidated keyboard suggestions let Autofill apps and Input Method Editors (IMEs) securely offer context-specific entities and strings directly in an IME’s suggestion strip, where they are most convenient for users.
  • Voice Access, for people who control their phone entirely by voice, now includes an on-device visual cortex that understands screen content and context, and generates labels and access points for accessibility commands.
  • Device Controls make it faster and easier than ever for users to access and control their connected devices. Now, by simply long pressing the power button, they’re able to bring up device controls instantly, and in one place. Apps can use a new API to appear in the controls.
  • Media Controls make it quick and convenient for users to switch the output device for their audio or video content, whether it be headphones, speakers or even their TV. You can enable this today from Developer Options, and it will be on by default in an upcoming Beta release.
  • One-time permission lets users give an app access to the device microphone, camera, or location, just that one time. The app can request permissions again the next time the app is used. More here.
  • Permissions auto-reset: if users haven’t used an app for an extended period of time, Android 11 will “auto-reset” all of the runtime permissions associated with the app and notify the user. The app can request the permissions again the next time the app is used.
  • Background location: In February, we announced developers will need to get approval to access background location in their app to prevent misuse. We’re giving developers more time to make changes and won’t be enforcing the policy for existing apps until 2021.
  • Google Play System Updates, launched last year, lets us expedite updates of core OS components to devices in the Android ecosystem. In Android 11, we more than doubled the number of updatable modules, and those 12 new modules will help improve privacy, security, and consistency for users and developers.

If you own a Google Pixel phone and are interested in trying out the Android 11 Beta 1 (Android R) on your phone, then you can download the firmware file from the section below:

New updates are added on June 1, 2020: For all the Android 11 fans who were eagerly waiting for the first beta of Android 11, have to wait for more time as Google has officially delayed the Android 11 beta launched event which was supposed to take place on June 3, 2020. Notably, the company has stated that it is “not the time to celebrate” which is in accordance with the ongoing protests across the US and has stated that the event will be rescheduled at a future date. Here is what the official statement from Google reads about this delay:

Android 11 Beta 1 Firmware File

  • Pixel 2
  • Pixel 2 XL
  • Pixel 3
  • Pixel 3 XL
  • Pixel 3a
  • Pixel 3a XL
  • Pixel 4
  • Pixel 4 XL

Advertisement

We are excited to tell you more about Android 11, but now is not the time to celebrate. We are postponing the June 3rd event and beta release. We’ll be back with more on Android 11, soon.

— Android Developers 🔜 at #GoogleIO (@AndroidDev) May 30, 2020

However, for all the app developers and partners, Google has stuck with the same timeline of the final release date of the stable Android 11, which is at present planned for Q3 2020. As of now, there is no announcement as to when the reschedule date has been pushed off to. We will keep you posted once some more information arrives across out table in this matter.

New updates are added on May 08, 2020: The Android 11 Developer Preview 4 or the DP4 is now out for the developers. Not only this, but the OEM has also reshuffled the timeline for the release of the Android 11 beta update and eventually the stable update rollout timetable. Now talking about the Android 11 update DP4, it brings the May 2020 security update and is life for all the eligible Google Pixel devices. Talk about new features that have been spotted with the new Android 11 developer preview 4, it now lets you resize picture in picture, copy text from the recent menu apps, undo button from multitasking has now been removed, new icon shape and theme options, etc.

User-facing issues

  • Face Unlock can no longer be set up on a device that is running Android 10 if the device was running the Android 11 Developer Preview and then was flashed back to Android 10.

Top fixes to developer-reported issues

  • The following developer-reported issues were fixed in Developer Preview 4:
  • The location services icon no longer shows in the status bar while location services are not in use.
  • Icons in the status bar no longer run over the edge on certain devices.

App compatibility changes

  • The location services icon no longer shows in the status bar while location services are not in use.

  • Icons in the status bar no longer run over the edge on certain devices.

  • The following changes related to app compatibility are included in Developer Preview 4:

  • Starting in Developer Preview 4, apps that target Android 11 can’t be installed if they contain a compressed resources.arsc file.

  • Starting in Developer Preview 4, apps that want to access phone numbers through the TelephonyManager.getLine1Number() and TelecomManager.getLine1Number() methods must request the READ_PHONE_NUMBERS permission. For more information, see the Phone numbers section in the guide about permissions updates in Android 11.

Known issues: Android Studio and tools

  • Starting in Developer Preview 4, apps that target Android 11 can’t be installed if they contain a compressed resources.arsc file.

  • Starting in Developer Preview 4, apps that want to access phone numbers through the TelephonyManager.getLine1Number() and TelecomManager.getLine1Number() methods must request the READ_PHONE_NUMBERS permission. For more information, see the Phone numbers section in the guide about permissions updates in Android 11.

  • Version 30.0.0 RC4 of the Build Tools is not compatible with version 3.5.3 or lower of the Android Gradle plugin. This issue can cause problems with RenderScript and otherwise interfere with building apps. To work around this issue, upgrade your Android Gradle plugin to the latest version.

Known issues: Android Enterprise

  • Setting the DISALLOW_CONFIG_TETHERING user permission also disables access to Wi-Fi settings.

Known issues: Android Auto

  • Users might experience an issue where the Android Auto icons on the bottom rail have an incorrect orientation. We are aware of this issue and a fix will be included in the Android 11 Beta release. To work around this issue, try changing the phone’s orientation.
  • Some users are being prompted to set up Android Auto each time a USB cable is connected with the vehicle’s infotainment system, even when they dismiss the prompt. We are aware of this issue and it will be fixed in an upcoming Android Auto release.
  • Users might experience an issue where the Android Auto UI appears in night light mode if they have night light mode enabled on their device.

As for the timeline of the update is concerned, the Beta 1 of the Android 11 update will be pushed on June 3, the Android 11 Beta 2 will come out on July, while the Beta 3 will be released on August. Matter of fact, on June 3 there will be an online Android 11 beta launch show hosted by the VP Engineering of Android David Burke at 11AM ET.

https://youtu.be/gqJEcy57hA8

You can download Android 11 system images from below and use them for manual flashing.

New updates are added on April 24, 2020: Google is soon approaching the time when the beta update of the Android 11 will be available for the OEMs. Because as per a new development, Google has released the Developer Preview 3 or DP3 of the Android 11 OS for the developer. The update is available for the Pixel device owners and brings in some more new changes to the Android 11. The update has build number RPP3.200230.017 and runs on the latest April 2020 security patchset. You can check out all the new changes and features of this new Android 11 DP3 by clicking here.

Downloads

  • Pixel Phones

  • App exit reasons updates – Apps can exit for a variety of reasons, from crash to system kill or user action. Across the many device types, memory configurations, and user scenarios that your app runs in, it’s important to understand why the app exited and what the state was at the time. Android 11 makes this easier with an exit reasons API that you can use to request details of the app’s recent exits. In DP3 we’ve updated the APIs based on your input, so please take a look.

  • GWP-ASan heap analysis – Android 11 uses a variety of tools to harden security-critical components in the platform and apps. In DP3, we’re adding GWP-ASan as another way to help developers find and fix memory safety issues. GWP-ASan is a sampling allocation tool that detects heap memory errors with minimal overhead or impact on performance. We’ve enabled GWP-ASan to run by default in platform binaries and system apps, and now you can now enable it for your apps as well. If your app uses native code or libraries, we recommend enabling GWP-ASan and testing as soon as possible.

  • ADB Incremental – Installing very large APKs with ADB (Android Debug Bridge) during development can be slow and impact your productivity, especially those developers working on Android Games. With ADB Incremental in Android 11, installing large APKs (2GB+) from your development computer to an Android 11 device is up to 10x faster. To use this new developer tool, first sign your APK with the new APK signature scheme v4 format, and then install your APK with the updated ADB command line tool found in the Android 11 Preview SDK. This new feature is part of a broad suite of new tools we’re investing in to make you more productive in building games on Android. Note that in DP3, ADB Incremental only works with Pixel 4 / 4XL devices due to a required file system change at the device level. All new devices launching with Android 11 will include this change and will support ADB Incremental.

  • Wireless Debugging – In Android 11, we’ve completely revamped the debugging experience using ADB over a Wi-Fi connection. With limited USB ports on laptops, and a myriad of USB cables & connections to manage, the Wireless Debugging feature in Android 11 can help you be more productive. Unlike the existing TCP/IP debugging workflow, Wireless Debugging on Android 11 does not need a cable to set up, remembers connections over time, and can utilize the full speed of the latest Wi-Fi standards. In DP3, use the pairing code workflow to get started with this developer feature. We plan to add an integrated experience for Wireless Debugging with QR code scanning in a future Android Studio release, but we want to get your early feedback on the command line tool offered in Android 11 DP3.

  • Data access auditing updates – In DP3 we renamed several of the APIs for this Android 11 developer feature. If you are already using the APIs, make sure to check out the changes. If you aren’t familiar, data access auditing lets you instrument your app to better understand how it accesses user data and from which user flows. For example, It can help you identify any inadvertent access to private data in your own code or within any SDKs you might be using.

New updates are added on March 19, 2020: Google has released the Android 11 Developer Preview 2 for the developers. The update as obvious is available for the Google Pixel owners and brings in some new features for the device as well. You can check out the complete changelog and the list of new features that this new Android 11 Developer Preview below:

New Android 11 API Changes

  • 5G state API – DP2 adds a 5G state API to let you quickly check whether the user is currently on a 5G New Radio or Non-Standalone network. You can use this to highlight your app’s 5G experience or branding when the user is connected. You can use this API together with the 5G dynamic meteredness API and bandwidth estimator API, as well as existing connectivity APIs, to take advantage of 5G’s improved speeds and latency.
  • Hinge angle for foldables – A top request for foldable devices has been an API to get the angle of the device screen surfaces. Android 11 now supports a hinge angle sensor that lets apps query directly or through a new AndroidX API for the precise hinge angle, to create adaptive experiences for foldables.
  • Call screening service improvements – To help users manage robocalls, we’re adding new APIs to let call-screening apps do more to help users. In addition to verifying an incoming call’s STIR/SHAKEN status (standards that protect against caller ID spoofing) as part of its call details, call-screening apps can report a call rejection reason. Apps can also customize a system-provided post call screen to let users perform actions such as marking a call as spam or adding to contacts. We’ll have more to share on this soon.
  • New ops and controls in Neural Networks API – Activation functions control the output of nodes within a neural network. At Google AI, we discovered a swish activation function allowing for faster training time and higher accuracy across a wide variety of tasks. In Android 11, we’re adding a computationally efficient version of this function, the hard-swish op. This is key to accelerating next-generation on-device vision models such as MobileNetV3 which forms the base model for many transfer learning use cases. Another major addition is the Control ops enabling more advanced machine learning models that support branching and loops. Finally, we’ve also added new execution controls to help you minimize latency for common use cases: Asynchronous Command Queue APIs reduce the overhead when running small chained models. See the NDK sample code, for example, using these new APIs.

Privacy and security

  • Foreground service types for camera and microphone – in Android 10 we introduced the manifest attribute foregroundServiceType as a way to help ensure more accountability for specific use-cases. Initially, apps could choose from “location” and several others. Now in Android 11 we’re adding two new types – “camera” and “microphone”. If your app wants to access camera or mic data from a foreground service, you need to add the foregroundServiceType value to your manifest.
  • Scoped storage updates– We’re continuing to iterate on our work to better protect the app and user data on external storage. In this release we’ve made further improvements and changes, such as support to migrate files from the legacy model to the new scoped storage model, and better management of cached files.

Polish and quality

  • Synchronized IME transitions – A new set of APIs let you synchronize your app’s content with the IME (input method editor, aka soft keyboard) and system bars as they animate on and offscreen, making it much easier to create natural, intuitive and jank-free IME transitions. For frame-perfect transitions, a new insets animation listener notifies apps of per-frame changes to insets while the system bars or the IME animate. Additionally, apps can take control of the IME and system bar transitions through the WindowInsetsAnimationController API. For example, app-driven IME experiences let apps control the IME in response to overscrolling the app UI. Give these new IME transitions a try and let us know what other transitions are important to you.
  • Variable refresh rate – Apps and games can now set a preferred frame rate for their windows. Most Android devices refresh the display at 60Hz refresh rate, but some devices support multiple refresh rates, such as 90Hz as well as 60Hz, with runtime switching. On these devices, the system uses the app’s preferred frame rate to choose the best refresh rate for the app. The API is available in both the SDK and NDK. See the details here.
  • Resume on reboot – Android 11 improves the experience of scheduled overnight over-the-air software updates. Like in previous versions of Android, the device must still reboot to apply the OTA update, but with resume on reboot, apps are now able to access Credential Encrypted (CE) storage after the OTA reboot, without the user unlocking the device. This means apps can resume normal function and receive messages right away – important since OTA updates can be scheduled overnight while the device might be unattended. Apps can still support Direct Boot to access Device Encrypted (DE) immediately after all types of reboot. Give resume on reboot a try by tapping “Restart after 2AM” with your next Developer Preview OTA update, more details here.
  • Camera support in Emulator – The Android emulator now supports front and back emulated camera devices. The back camera supports Camera2 API HW Level 3 (includes YUV reprocessing, RAW capture). It’s a fully CTS-compliant LEVEL_3 device that you can use to test advanced features like ZSL and RAW/DNG support. The front camera supports FULL level with logical camera support (one logical device with two underlying physical devices). This camera emphasizes logical camera support, and the physical camera devices include narrow and wide field of view cameras. With this emulated camera support, you can build and test with any of the camera features added in Android 11.

New updates are added on March 5, 2020: Google has rolled out the Developer Preview 1.1 update for the developers. Now this update also brings in several bug fixes for the device along with new enhancements. You can check out the complete changelog below:

Moreover, you can download the update links for DP 1.1 by clicking the link below:

Android Studio and tools – armeabi-v7a apps no longer cause x86 Emulator images to crash. NDK apps targeting Android 11 are no longer blocked from building because of an issue with the Android Gradle Plugin. This fix is included in both Android Studio 4.0 Beta 2 (or higher) and Android Studio 4.1 Canary 1 (or higher).

Non-SDK interface restrictions – Greylist restrictions have been temporarily relaxed on a small number of methods used by OkHTTP and related SDKs that are in widespread use. This should provide app developers with more time to test and update their libraries before these restrictions are reinstated later in the Developer Preview.

Apps – Fixed an issue where a fatal exception was being thrown by com.android.phone.

GSI – Fixed an issue where using the gsi_gms_arm64-userdebug build failed to boot on Pixel 3 devices. – Fixed an issue where the Setup Wizard would crash when running on Pixel 4 XL devices.

  • DP 1.1 for Pixel Phones
  • DP 1.1 for Project Treble devices

It is that time of the year where we get to see the new version of the Android operating system being rolled out for the developers. And finally, Google has made the Android 11 (Android R) Developers Preview 1 available for the developers. Note that there will be a total of six updates before the stable version rolls out for the public according to the official timeline shared by Google regarding Android 11 update. The good thing is that all Pixel devices, except the first generation, have been included for testing out the Android 11 Developers Preview. The essential phone has also been excluded from the list as the company has decided to call it quits from the smartphone industry.

In fact, in total, there will be a total of 3 Developers Preview update and 3 Beta updates before the stable Android 11 update. Developer Preview is meant for the developers to make apps compatible with the next version of Android. This program will run from February 2020 until the final release in Q3 2020, just like the timeline we had with the Android 10 update. There are quite a few new features or tweaks that have been made a part of the Android 11. Moreover, this program is free, and developers interested in testing out Android 11 in the aforementioned devices can download the latest system images from below:

Supported Devices are:

  • Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL
  • Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL

Google will begin the beta sign up for the Android 11 operating system in May 2020 and till then there will be two more Developers Preview to furnish all the issues and make apps compatible. Besides, in June 2020, app, game, SDK, library, and game engine developers can make use of the Platform Stability to plan final compatibility testing and public release. We will keep you updated regarding further developments in this regard. Let us know in the comments below if you have flashed Developers Preview on your Pixel device and what all new features that it brings.

Download Android 11 System Images

  • Pixel Phones: System Images
  • Pixel Phones: OTA Images
  • GSI Images: Treble Phones