The next big installment in our favorite smartphone operating system is coming and we have been delving into “Android 11 Developer Preview 1” to figure out what might be the top new features of the eleventh OS iteration.
As we saw with the first wave of Android 10 — formerly Q — builds last year, there are some notable and highly requested features being added right off the bat, with preparation already in place for a flurry of upcoming features in potential future builds.
Not all of the new software additions will work with every Pixel phone out there. And because of dropped support, the OG Pixel is unable to even install the latest developer preview. Despite some things that might not be fully compatible with all models, we’ve still done a deep dive into the preview to give you an indication of some of the very best new features that come as part of Android 11.
Naturally, some of you might be eager to download this first taste of Android 11 and enjoy some new features. We definitely wouldn’t recommend doing so, as this is not really meant as a user-facing build. It’s also still currently full of bugs and random issues that make it hard to recommend on your main smartphone. Open betas will come later down the line with added stability and, hopefully, a ton of extra features slapped on top.
It’s true that some of these new software additions are possible on older versions of Android via additional applications or as part of third-party OSes. That said, they are 100% new to Android — at least on Pixel devices.
Dark theme scheduling
Something that we’ve seen other manufacturers like Samsung adds even before Android 10 was even available. But even so, you can now schedule when the dark theme kicks in on your Pixel phone in a number of ways.
You can have your Pixel activate the dark theme at sunset and deactivate at sunrise. Alternatively, you can set custom times for when the dark theme kicks in very much how it does on iOS 13. Some third-party apps offer a few further controls but this is a great start.
Motion Sense is often chastised for being a gimmick but Google has added a great new gesture that means you can pause and play music by “air-tapping” above the display. This feature is, obviously, not available on older models without having the Soli tech packed inside.
If you have Motion Sense activated, when playing audio from apps like YouTube Music, you can lower your hand quickly to pause and play. It works pretty well once you get the hang of it too. It even works perfectly when the screen is locked, which I think makes this actually really useful.