I never really understood how Google has a release scheme Android. Unlike Apple, the search giant, instead of giving a presentation and talking about the update, silently launched a beta test for developers, which lasted several months, and only then convened an official event to explain what innovations are worth wait. But no one announced the official release date anyway, inviting users to find out about the release of the update after the fact. With Android 11 the same thing happened.
Android 11 is out officially. It's a pity, not for all devices
Google officially released Android 11 tonight, but the release was rather sluggish. Not only were users simply not ready for it, because they did not know when to wait for the update, but it also became available only for a limited number of devices. By tradition, they turned out to be Google Pixel smartphones, which have already begun to receive a new version of the OS. OnePlus, Xiaomi, Realme, Oppo and Samsung will soon join them. True, as usual, it is the flagships that will be updated first, and then all the others.
What's new in Android 11
Android 11 – not such a big update
From the point of view of innovations Android 11 can hardly be called a major update. Most of the new features could be part of a mid-year mid-year mid-year update like Apple. However, here they are:
- History of notifications, where you can see all notifications, even if they were accidentally closed;
- Pop-up bubble chats that appear on top of other apps;
- Screen recording function, which allows you to enable video recording directly from the notification curtain;
- Scoped Storage mechanism, which divides the storage into several independent cells so that applications do not have access to each other's data;
- Advanced privilege settings with the ability to choose for what period to grant applications permissions to access the camera, geolocation services and microphone: for a day, for one session, or only when using;
- A separate page for selecting maps on Google Play, where smart home control tools are also available;
- Disabling the use of beauty modes in the camera by default;
- Password autocomplete feature that offers a login-password pair right above the keyboard;
- New playback control panel right in the notification shade with expanded functionality;
- The function of digitizing documents, which, however, will not be available to everyone and everywhere due to legal restrictions;
- Smartphone control by tapping on the back cover as in iOS 14.
In general, there are really many new features, but they do not make you admire the ingenuity of Google developers, leaving the impression that they themselves did not know how to surprise users. And the only significant innovation turned out to be old. After all, the mechanism for dividing memory into separate Scoped Storage cells was planned to be launched back in Android 10, but then the application developers said that they would not have time to adapt the software to the new requirements, and it was decided to postpone the release for a whole year, exactly until Android 11.
Which devices will receive Android 11
There will be quite a few smartphones that will receive Android 11. But it is not known when they will receive the update.
As for the devices that will receive Android 11, there are not so few of them. Here are just the main ones:
- The entire Galaxy S10 lineup
- The entire Galaxy Note 10 line
- The entire Galaxy Note 20 line
- Entire Galaxy S20 line
- All Galaxy A range (2019/2020)
- Xiaomi Mi 9
- Xiaomi Mi 10
- Huawei P20, P30, P40
- Huawei Mate 20, Mate 30, Mate 40
- Entire line Honor 20
- All OnePlus smartphones from 6th model
- All Oppo smartphones, Realme and Vivo 2019-2020
Of course, it is impossible to take into account all smartphones that shine Android 11. Firstly, some of them have not yet come out, and, secondly, the manufacturers themselves are not yet very willing to give promises regarding the timing of the renewal of branded devices. Therefore, if you suddenly did not find your smartphone on this list, do not be discouraged. Just keep in mind that if it was released in 2019-2020, most likely the update will get to it sooner or later. Of course, only if it's not a smartphone Xiaomi.