Despite the fact that the launch Android took place a year and a half later iOS, from a functional point of view, Google's operating system was at first far superior to its main competitor. Only many years later Apple did it expand the capabilities of its platform so much that its users stopped looking to the side. However, in Cupertino they were so keen on improving iOS that they could not stop and already forced users Android to look at themselves with envy.
Some functions Android 11 copied from iOS
Change card to Google Pay
I never liked Google Pay because of its ill-conceivedness. Not only did the Google payment service only have a limited number of tokens to pay without an Internet connection, but it also did not allow you to quickly select a payment card. Apple Pay in this sense was much more convenient, allowing you to call the interface right on the lock screen and select the desired card for payment. Fortunately, Android 11 has a similar feature.
Hot swapping cards in Google Pay is what we all wanted
Google did not change the Google Pay interface, but simply added a separate page to the system, which is called up by holding the power button for a long time. This action brings up a window in which a lot of elements are located – from payment cards for Google Pay to emergency call buttons and smart home controls. I don’t know why Google has mixed everything up like that, but now at least you can choose a card before paying, which is great.
App permissions on Android
iOS has always had more advanced security mechanisms than Android, which Apple has made more and more perfect from year to year. Therefore, when in iOS 13 it became possible to give the application permission to track geolocation for only one session, no one was particularly surprised. Everyone just took it for granted. However, Google looked closely and realized that it also needed something similar.
Google decided to improve the permission system in Android 11
Android 11 introduced a mechanism that allows an application to be allowed access to a camera, microphone, or geolocation services for only one session. That is, at the first start, the application will send you a request, and you can independently decide whether to give it a privilege once, to allow access to these system mechanisms only when used or always. A very handy thing, I tell you, that will ensure your privacy by prohibiting the software from spying on you.
Screenshot editor at Android
I've always liked the way iOS implemented screenshots. The image was not just saved to the gallery, but allowed to launch the editor to crop, paint or add something to it. In Android, by default, there was no such feature and users had to open the gallery, look for a screenshot in the abundance of saved images and only then edit it. Fortunately, this year Google changed its mind and realized that this was not the case.
Editing screenshots on Android will be much easier and more convenient
Google developers copied the screenshot creation mechanism to iOS, implementing it practically unchanged in Android 11. Now, if you press the key combination to take a screenshot, its thumbnail will appear in the lower left corner. Clicking on it will open a window with editing tools, where you can make the necessary changes to the image, and then just as easily send it via messenger, social network application or by mail to the selected interlocutor.
Screen recording in Android 11
You may be surprised, but in the stock version Android there was never a standard tool for recording video from the screen, and manufacturers were in no hurry to implement it on their own. Because of this, many smartphones based on the OS from Google still do not know how to capture what is happening on the screen. It is especially surprising that in iOS this feature has been around for a very long time, and is implemented at a fairly high level.
Screen recording should have appeared on Android many years ago, but for some reason Google was in no hurry
In Android, the screen recording should have appeared a year ago, but by the time Android 10 was released, Google for some reason hid it in the developers menu. But in Android 11, obviously, having corrected all the flaws, the company decided to release this innovation officially. Therefore, with the release of the update, you will be able to lower the notification curtain, click on the screen recording button and record everything that happens, so that you can then send the recording to its destination or save it to memory.
Scoped Storage at Android
It is known that in Android 11 a Scoped Storage mechanism will appear, which will divide the smartphone's memory into several independent cells according to the number of installed applications. In this way, Google wants to ensure the security of the data they hold so that one program cannot claim the space occupied by another. In fact, this feature should have appeared a year ago, but its launch was postponed.
Application data protection has been in iOS for a long time, and in Android it has grown to it only now
Surprisingly, in iOS such a mechanism has been around for many years to restrict applications from claiming each other's data. It doesn't have a name of its own, but it just is. For this reason, at iOS, it is impossible to imagine that one application would simply access the data held by another and steal it. On Android it was, albeit not the norm, but a more or less ordinary situation. Fortunately, you won't have to endure it anymore.