Google has released the first developer preview for Android 11, the next version of its mobile operating system with new features on Tuesday, February 19, 2020. Android 11 is the eleventh major release and the 18th version of the Google-owned Android mobile operating system.
Google has released the first developer preview for Android 11, the next version of its mobile operating system with new features on Tuesday, February 19, 2020.
Android 11 is the eleventh major release and the 18th version of the Google-owned Android mobile operating system.
Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) continually develop Android OS, and it has seen several updates to its base operating system since the initial public release of the Android beta on November 5, 2007.
The first commercial version of Android Operating System called Android 1.0 was released on September 23, 2008.
Google has released the Android 11 Developer Preview 1, an early baseline build focused on developer feedback, with new features, APIs (Application Programming Interface), and behavior changes, exclusively on their Pixel phones.
So far, the Android 11 Developer Preview is available only on Google Pixel 2, Google Pixel 2 XL, Google Pixel 3, Google Pixel 3 XL, Google Pixel 3a, Google Pixel 3a XL, Google Pixel 4, and Google Pixel 4XL.
If you have a Google Pixel 4, Google Pixel 4XL, Google Pixel 3a, Google Pixel 3a XL, Google Pixel 3, Google Pixel3 XL, Google Pixel 2, or Google Pixel 2 XL device, you can visit the downloads page for Android 11 and download a system image for development and testing.
The Android 11 Developer Preview includes system images for Google Pixel devices that you can use for developing and testing only.
Google plans to run its Android 11 Developer Preview program from February 2020 until the final public release to Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), which is planned for the third quarter (01 July to 30 September) of 2020.
The latest version of the Android mobile operating system comes with a range of new and interesting features, which haven’t been available to Android users so far.
In its latest version, Google has further improved the Android operating system’s speed, privacy, and security.
App switching on Android 11 will be now faster and more memory efficient. The apps should launch faster than they did on the last version of this mobile operating system.
In Android 11 Google is enhancing and updating the existing connectivity APIs so that users can take benefit of 5G network’s improved speeds.
Android 11 includes system-level updates for lots of new technologies.
With Dynamic Meteredness API, the users can check whether the connection is unmetered, and if so, offer higher resolution or quality that may use more Internet data.
Google has extended the Dynamic Meteredness API to include Cellular Networks, so that a user can discover others users whose carriers are offering truly unmetered data while connected to the carrier’s 5G network.
In Android 11, Google has updated Bandwidth Estimator API for 5G Network to make it easier to check the downstream and upstream bandwidth, without any requirement to poll the network or compute your own estimate.
If the modem does not provide support, the users can make a default estimation based on the current connection.
Android 11 brings support for a wider range of screen types such as waterfall and hole-punch.
Apps can control pinhole screens and waterfall screens using the existing display cutout APIs.
If a user needs, a new API will let his or her app use the full waterfall screen including the edges; with insets to assist the user run interaction near the edges.
In Android 11, Google is introducing some changes that help developers create deeper conversational experiences.
In the Dedicated Conversations Section in the notification shade, users can instantly find their ongoing conversations with people in their favorite apps.
Bubbles are a way to keep conversations in view and accessible while multi-tasking on their phones.
Messaging and chat apps should use the Bubbles API on notifications to enable this in Android 11.
If your app supports image copy and paste, you can now let users insert assets directly into notification inline replies to enable richer communication as well as in the app itself.
As part of Android 11 Developer Preview 1, you will see image copy support in Google Chrome and image paste support via Gboard clipboard.
Neural Networks API (NNAPI) is designed for running computationally intensive operations for machine learning on Android devices.
Quality of Service APIs support priority and timeout for model execution.
Memory Domain APIs reduce memory copying and transformation for consecutive model execution.
In Expanded Quantization Support, Google has added signed integer asymmetric quantization where signed integers are used in place of float numbers to enable smaller models and faster inference.
Privacy has always been at the core of Android Operating System, and each year Google has added more ways to keep users secure and increase transparency and control.
For the most sensitive types of data, not just location but also for the device microphone and camera, users can now grant temporary access through a one-time permission.
This One-Time Permission means that apps can access the data until the user moves away from the app, and they must then request permission again for the next access.
Google has continued its work to better protect app and user data on external storage, and made further improvements in Android 11 Developer Preview to help developers migrate more easily.
Google has expanded biometrics support in Android 11 Operating System to meet the needs of a wider range of devices.
BiometricPrompt now supports three authenticator types with different levels of granularity strong, weak, and device credential.
Google has also decoupled the BiometricPrompt flow from the app’s Activity lifecycle to make it easier to integrate with various app architectures, and to improve the transaction UI.
All apps using biometric auth should move to the BiometricPrompt APIs, which are also available in AndroidX for compatibility with earlier versions of Android.
Google has expanded use of compiler-based sanitizers in security-critical components, including BoundSan, IntSan, CFI, and Shadow-Call Stack.
Google has also enabled heap pointer tagging for apps targeting Android 11 or higher, to help apps catch memory issues in production.
Google has used HWAsan to find and fix many memory errors in the system.
Android 11 Operating System now offer HWAsan-enabled system images to help you find such issues in your apps.
Apps can now share data blobs effortlessly and more safely with other apps through a BlobstoreManager.
The Blob store is idyllic for use-cases like sharing ML models among multiple apps for the same user.
Google has included identity credentials in Android 11 Operating System by adding platform support for secure storage and retrieval of verifiable identification documents, such as ISO 18013-5 compliant Mobile Driving Licenses.
Since Android 10 OS, Google has made significant progress towards Google Play System Updates (Project Mainline) to improve security, privacy, and consistency across the ecosystem.
In Android 11, Google has added 12 new updatable modules for 22 modules, which include a permissions module that standardizes user and developer access to critical privacy controls on Android devices, a media provider module that’s integral to privacy efforts around Scoped Storage, and an NNAPI (Neural Networks API) module that optimizes performance and guarantees consistent APIs across devices.
While changes Google makes to Android can make the OS more helpful, secure, and better performing, some of these changes can affect developers’ apps.
As Google built Android 11, it has made a conscious effort to minimize behavioral changes that could affect apps by closely reviewing their impact and by making them opt-in, wherever possible, until you set targetSdkVersion to ‘R’ in your app.
This gives developers more control, and leads to more apps working out-of-the-box on Android 11.
To help developers test for compatibility, Google has made many of the breaking changes toggleable. This means that you can force-enable or disable the changes individually from Developer options or adb.
With this change, there is no longer a need to change targetSdkVersion or recompile your app for basic testing.
In Android 11 Operating System, Google has updated the lists of restricted non-SDK interfaces.
For long time, developers have been asking a public API to load resources and assets dynamically at runtime. Now, as part of migration away from non-SDK interfaces, Google has now added a Resource Loader framework in Android 11.
In Android 11, Google has added a new release milestone called ‘Platform Stability’ that it expects to reach in early June.
This milestone includes not only final SDK/NDK APIs, but also final internal APIs and system behaviors that may affect apps.
Call-screening applications can now do more to assist users.
Apps can get the incoming call’s STIR/SHAKEN verification status as part of the call details.
They can customize a system-provided post call screen to let users perform actions such as marking a call as spam or adding to contacts.
Google has extended the Wi-Fi suggestion API to give connectivity management apps greater ability to manage their networks.
For example, management apps can force a disconnection by removing a network suggestion, manage Passpoint Networks, receive more information about the quality of connected networks, and other management changes.
Android 11 Operating System enforces and notifies about expiration date of a Passpoint profile, supports Common Name specification in the profile, and allows self-signed private CAs for Passpoint R1 profiles.
Connectivity apps can now use the Wi-Fi suggestion API to manage Passpoint Networks.
The ImageDecoder API now lets users decode and render image sequence animations stored in HEIF files, so they can make use of high-quality assets while minimizing impact on network data and apk size.
HEIF image sequences can offer drastic file-size reductions for image sequences when compared to animated GIFs.
New NDK APIs let apps decode and encode images (such as JPEG, PNG, WebP) from native code for graphics or post processing, while retaining a smaller APK size since users don’t need to bundle an external library.
The native decoder also takes advantage of Android’s process for ongoing platform security updates.
Apps can now use new APIs to mute vibration from ringtones, alarms or notifications while the camera capture session is active.
In Android 11 Operating System, the apps can use metadata tags to enable bokeh modes on camera capture requests in devices that support it.
A still image mode offers highest quality capture, while a continuous mode ensures that capture keeps up with sensor output, such as for video capture.
Low latency video is crucial for real-time video streaming apps and services like Stadia.
Video codecs that support low latency playback return the first frame of the stream as quickly as possible after decoding starts.
Apps can now use new APIs to check and configure low-latency playback for a specific codec.
In HDMI low-latency mode, apps can use new APIs to check for and request auto low latency mode (also known as game mode) on external displays and TVs.
In HDMI low-latency mode, the display or TV disables graphics post-processing in order to minimize latency.
Specifically for the Google Pixel 4 and Google Pixel 4 XL, there’s a new Motion Sense gesture to pause music, as well as an option to increase touch sensitivity when using a screen protector.
February 2020: Developer Preview 1 [Early baseline build focused on developer feedback, with new features, APIs, and behavior changes]
March 2020: Developer Preview 2 [Incremental update with additional features, APIs, and behavior changes]
April 2020: Developer Preview 3 [Incremental update for stability and performance]
May 2020: Beta 1 [Initial beta-quality release, over-the-air update to early adopters who enroll in Android Beta]
June 2020: Beta 2 [Platform Stability milestone. Final APIs and behaviors. Play publishing opens]
Q3 2020: Beta 3 [Release candidate build]
Q3 2020: Final Release [Android 11 release to AOSP and ecosystem]
1. Android 1.0: September 23, 2008
2. Android 1.1: February 9, 2009
3. Android 1.5 Cupcake: April 27, 2009
4. Android 1.6 Donut: September 15, 2009
5. Android 2.0 Eclair: October 26, 2009
6. Android 2.2 Froyo: May 20, 2010
7. Android 2.3 Gingerbread: December 06, 2010
8. Android 3.0 Honeycomb: February 22, 2011
9. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich: October 18, 2011
10. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: July 09, 2012
11. Android 4.4 KitKat: October 31, 2013
12. Android 5.0 Lollipop: November 12, 2014
13. Android 6.0 Marshmallow: October 05, 2015
14. Android 7.0 Nougat: August 22, 2016
15. Android 8.0 Oreo: August 21, 2017
16. Android 9 Pie: August 06, 2018
17. Android 10: September 03, 2019
18. Android 11 (Developer Preview 1 Release): February 19, 2020