The latest Android update cranks things up to 11, with plenty of new features for Google fans to sink their teeth into.
Most Android users are walking around with smartphones rocking Android 10 or lower, but not you. No sir. Instead, you’re one of the lucky ones with a handset that goes all the way up to 11 – and only some of the best Android phones allow that. That’s one louder than Android 10, according to our scribbled calculations, which means you’ll have a plethora of new features at your disposal. We’re going to take a look at some of these fancy new features below, so you can ensure you’re making the most of Google’s latest and greatest mobile OS. If you’re not currently using an Android 11 smartphone but simply want to satiate your curiosity, that’s okay too. From souped-up messaging to hidden Easter eggs, screen recording and more, there’s a lot to discover, so let’s jump straight in. Our phones can become a convoluted mess of notifications ranging from direct messages, WhatsApp group updates, game notifications, breaking news and much, much more. It’s easy to miss important messages among this barrage of information, which is the reason the new conversations tab in Android 11 is an absolute godsend for bringing some much needed organisation into your life. Swiping down from the top in Android 11 now splits info into two groups: notifications and conversations. The former are general notifications from apps, while the latter are made up of all notifications from chat apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Twitter, allowing you to prioritize them. While it’s nice to keep in touch, we all have at least a few WhatsApp groups with keyboard-happy members that don’t quite know when to put their phones down to embrace some much-needed silence. Thankfully, Android 11 lets you prioritize important messages while silencing less important ones – think pixelated Facebook memes sent from your mum, for example. Long-pressing a conversation in the dropdown will present three options: Priority, Alerting and Silent. Priority conversations will always appear at the top, featuring a yellow highlight around their icon. You can also choose priority conversations to ignore the Do Not Disturb rule, which is handy if you’re expecting an important message. Alerting treats notifications in the normal way, while Silent will keep particular threads from alerting your phone at all. They’ll still appear in your notifications, mind, but at the bottom of the list. Making use of all three options should help remove the headache associated with chatty WhatsApp groups, while still bringing important messages to your attention. While we’re on the subject of conversations, Android 11 also has built-in support for chat bubbles – a feature that will be familiar to Facebook Messenger users. When you receive a new message, swipe down from the top, and check your chat notification. If the app supports bubbles, there will be a small circle in the bottom-right corner of the notification.
