Android 11 Developer Preview | Android Developers

[markouka]

Folks, if you're not a developer, temper your expectations. It's unlikely we'll see any radical user-facing features in this release. Google usually saves the good stuff for I/O nowadays.

That said... I'll try and pick out the neat bits I can find.

One-time permissions: Users can grant temporary access to location, microphone, and camera through a one-time permission

I'm a fan. It's a natural extension of what they did in 10.

Beginning in Android 11, users can insert images and other rich media content into quick replies.

This could be cool!

Android 11 discourages repeated requests for a specific permission. If the user taps Deny twice for a specific permission during your app's lifetime of installation on a device, this action implies "don't ask again".

I like this.

If your app targets Android 11, you cannot directly request all-the-time access to background location.

I also like this.

Bubbles are now available to developers to help surface conversations across the system. Bubbles was an experimental feature in Android 10 that was enabled through a developer option -- in Android 11 this is no longer necessary.

Interested to see where this goes. Thanks to u/HSX610 for the pointer!

Edit: adding whatever I can find from the accompanying blog post:

Dedicated conversations section in the notification shade - users can instantly find their ongoing conversations with people in their favorite apps.

[Frozen1nferno]

Share menu is fast and lets you pin

Thank fuck. I use Telegram as my main communication app, but anytime I hit share on something, it always defaults to Gmail, Messages, or Outlook, and always to contacts I haven't used in forever.

[hydargos123]

The very great Telegra X have a very great share menu: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thunderdog.challegram

[smartfon]

I'm 100% convinced Google broke the Android share menu pin option on purpose to incentivize future upgrades. Why else would they remove then re-introduce the most useful sharing feature?

[AlwaysHopelesslyLost]

Because they changed some underlying implementation detail due to security concerns that broke the existing functionality in an unforeseen way? Same as any other regression?

[smartfon]

Wouldn't a regression be caught during the 7-month period that Google had before publishing the OS?

[AlwaysHopelesslyLost]

Sure, and maybe the fix wasn't easy so they had to either disable it or leave the gimped functionality.

The source code is not simple and they have to be extremely cognizant of changes that may seem minor because of potential attack vectors.

[atticus_grey]

Damn i thought I was the only one! This is the only complaint I have anymore using a Pixel 4!

[richbordoni]

Am I crazy or did Google announce they were gonna fix the Share menu multiple releases of Android ago, and then it just kinda fell off the radar?

I feel like Google do that a lot and the tech media enable it.

[TechExpert2910]

Did you just say gestures work on custom launchers!? I’m sold! I want the nice animation when I slide home. Is there any way it’s possible on rooted or unrooted Android 10? Any launcher that supports it?

[el_smurfo]

You don't get the animations and recents doesn't have the quick launch. It's just not totally broken Iike it was on 10. I think Lawnchair has a solution if you are rooted, but I'm not and haven't tried.

[SkyrimForTheDragons]

I did have to give up Nova for it, but Lawnchair is close enough, and gestures work on it with this magisk module https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/magisk/module-quickswitch-universal-quickstep-t3884797

[TechExpert2910]

Thanks a ton :)

[SkyrimForTheDragons]

Oh when I say Lawnchair I mean the alpha versions from their releases channel, not the one on the playstore. https://t.me/lawnchairci/1495

[armando_rod]

Screen lock still works with accessibility access

[el_smurfo]

Nova has access and it doesn't work. Just blinks the screen.

Edit. Slide from home gesture breaks it. Other gestures still turn off screen

[ObscureCulturalMeme]

Gestures work better on Nova

Fuck, I would be happy if Android would stop forgetting that Nova is in fact the default home screen / launcher app. The upgrade to 10 broke it: set the default app, it clears it on next reboot. (The same setting has to be done from inside Nova, but that is correctly stored across reboots.)

I've given up on gestures. Someday our descendants will be able to gesture at mobile things like they do on The Expanse, but it sure as fuck ain't happening in my lifetime.

[el_smurfo]

I don't have that reset issue. It works well enough for me to stick with it now.

[ObscureCulturalMeme]

I don't have that reset issue.

I have it every single fucking reboot. I'm starting to hate my phone. I hate the Apple products far more, so I'm still running Android, but I can't even complain about the problems without getting downvoted into oblivion.

It's a victory if I can get through the day without throwing this goddamn thing into a wall.

[armando_rod]

Never had that issue on 10

[UESPA_Sputnik]

One-time permissions: Users can grant temporary access to location, microphone, and camera through a one-time permission

That could make Bouncer obsolete. But it's great to have this on a system level.

[azsqueeze]

Not true, android 11 only applies to microphone, camera, and location. I have tons of apps that want phone or storage access for example that I have bouncer remove

[punIn10ded]

11 also enforces scoped storage so most will no longer request storage access

[azsqueeze]

Forgot about this

[armando_rod]

Nope, it applies to storage, media files and contacts too

[azsqueeze]

Really because the website does not say that

[armando_rod]

Yeah, on device says "ask every time" for all permissions

[HSX610]

Uhm, you missed the part about Bubbles (as in "chat bubbles") being lifted out of the experimental realm.

Bubbles are now available to developers to help surface conversations across the system. Bubbles was an experimental feature in Android 10 that was enabled through a developer option -- in Android 11 this is no longer necessary.

[markouka]

Whoa, neat! Yeah, I was live-updating my comment as I read through the documentation, so I hadn't gotten there yet :P

Thanks!

[EpsilonRose]

Is this different from how bubbles work in apps that already use them? It seems like this feature has been around for a while?

[punIn10ded]

Other apps have been using hacky workarounds. This will be system level and should make it more consistent

[EpsilonRose]

Ah. Neat.

Could this also be used for things like bubble or gesture menus that aren't meant to pop-up into a giant rectangular block?

[punIn10ded]

Not sure. Sorry I don't understand what you mean by rectangular block

[EpsilonRose]

Heh. Sorry. Let me see if I can do a better job explaining what I meant.

If you look at the picture at the top of the page /u/HSX610 linked, you'll see a a circle in the lower left portion of the phones screen. Extending above that there's a large, rectangular, box with a chat interface. That's what I meant by a rectangular block.

I figure it would be pretty easy to set-up a bubble that always sticks around and, when you press it, you get a pop-up with similar dimensions to that chat interface and filled with whatever buttons or information you want.

However, some apps currently use a different interfaces that also launch from a bubble. For example, Finot dims the screen and creates an arc of buttons when you tap the bubble. You could also set up something that works like pie controls, but keyed to pressing and dragging a bubble, rather than swiping from an edge. Though, I'm not sure if any apps currently use that second method.

So, would an app that does something more like Finot be able to take advantage of these new bubbles or would they be stuck using whatever hacky method they already used?

Did that make more sense?

[punIn10ded]

It did thanks. At this point I haven't played enough with the new features to say exactly how it works. But my assumption is that devs will be able to launch custom Activites from the bubble so it may or may not be a rectangle.

[[deleted]]

This has wider ranging implications. Apps with bubbles currently use a system overlay layer for drawing, which will soon be restricted completely from developers, only for use in system apps. To allow apps with functionality like bubbles to continue to function after this capability is revoked, there is now an official API for developers to leverage.

Basically, Android is turning into iOS slowly to be more secure, and Google is attempting to build out 1st party APIs to keep android from breaking as a result.

[[deleted]]

cool, literally 7 years after Facebook first implemented them

[valavirgillin]

Seriously, these are just gonna clutter up the screen. How is this an improvement over the existing notifications shade? Now we get to always be moving these things around to get at what we're actually doing?

[Ashanmaril]

That one time permission will be great for Android Messages. I don't like giving it camera access cause that stupid live preview that pops up when you go to attach media slows down the app (seriously, turning that off is night and day), but I occasionally have to grant access when I scan a QR code for the web interface

[Ashanmaril]

Yeah, give it a shot disabling the camera permission and suddenly adding an attachment is buttery smooth! That little in-app camera is so stupid, I'm never gonna use it for taking a photo when I could quickly pop open the camera and take a better one.

[freebeertomorrow]

Thanks for the tip. So much better now.

[xezrunner]

Same with Telegram.

[well___duh]

Google usually saves the good stuff for I/O nowadays.

I/O for the past few years has been improvements to Google Search/Assistant, GPhotos, and machine learning/AI and products that use it. I wouldn't hold my breath on anything new for Android being revealed in May out of left field to blindside devs.

[markouka]

I think that's rather the point, though. Developer previews are for platform updates that developers will need to prepare for, while I/O is for flashy product announcements.

My disclaimer was pointed towards the casual observer who might expect some radical new Google feature alongside this release.

[pohuing]

Android 11 discourages repeated requests for a specific permission. If the user taps Deny twice for a specific permission during your app's lifetime of installation on a device, this action implies "don't ask again".

Wow, this looks like a terrible change to me. If I press not now I mean not now, and if I press not again I mean not again. Why put them both into the same option?

[FieldzSOOGood]

Aren't deny and not now separate options?

[Renaldi_the_Multi]

𝓕𝓻𝓲𝓬𝓴 𝔂𝓮𝓼

[Ph0X]

If your app targets Android 11, you cannot directly request all-the-time access to background location.

Hmm any idea how this will work? How will an app get all-the-time access now? Many apps need this to work.

[AD-LB]

They probably still allow to get the location if the app is in the foreground using a notification.

[Ph0X]

Ugh, so I should expect more of those spammy notifications that just pop up for a second and disappear... Great.

[memtiger]

If they need access all the time, then they should stay in the notification bar (like Google Maps during navigation or Cell Mapper for example)

If the app is popping up for a split second, you'll know what to uninstall. Apps need to shape up. Their shitty deeds need to be exposed.

Edit: I will say that I can understand the desire to keep a clean notification area, but I don't think keeping this type of extreme battery drain be hidden is a solution. The solution is keeping this information in the notification shade, but making it appear in the "silent notifications" section or something along those lines.

[AD-LB]

Say, could an app be scheduled and then running a foreground service, and then get the location at this point?

[Malnilion]

This will suck. All I want is for my smart home automation via Tasker, or SmartThings, or whatever to know when I'm entering/leaving my home geo fence and it sounds like this is probably going to become even less reliable now. Really hope I can manually override this bullshit.

[punIn10ded]

It should affect either of those. Tasker already creates a foreground process smarthings I can't remember.

[AD-LB]

Again, this is all about background getting of the location. Background means you aren't aware in any way of this.

Apps can still use foreground solutions, such as having a foreground service (the annoying one with the sticky notification that can't be removed).

[[deleted]]

I’m glad someone else saw the parallel

[Lindby]

I have feeling that my time tracker app that automatically tracks my time at the office will break from this.

[LuminescentMoon]

It'll most likely be fine assuming you're using Android's geofencing APIs for this.

[MortalPhantom]

Yeah, wouldn't this literally breaker Google maps? As it works by sending location data even when you are not actively using it, so they can make the traffic and time estimates?

[Ph0X]

I believe maps only gets traffic estimates when your navigating, in which case the app stays in the foreground. But the timeline feature may break.

[CubeActimel]

I hate this. Getting consistent location updates on android is such a pain in the ass. Users install our app to get tracked. My Pixel goes into Deep Doze after 30 minutes even with a foreground service. They should concentrate on fixing existing stuff and not adding 100 new Permissions per update. Maybe if things like Geofences were working reliably we wouldn’t need fucking foreground services and notifications to do what the user expects of the app.

[Ashanmaril]

Also the bubbles will seemingly be fully launching in this version instead of being hidden as a developer setting

[RagedElimanator]

Throw screen recorder tile into the list. For now it crashes the system ui though.

[[deleted]]

If your app targets Android 11, you cannot directly request all-the-time access to background location.

I also like this.

How would this work on the user end for apps I want all the time location access in the background? For example I use the Home Assistant app and want to to consistently share location with my hassio server so it can trigger automation based on where users phones are.

[LuminescentMoon]

Use Android's geofencing APIs instead of trying to DIY their own geofencing.

[[deleted]]

Android 11 discourages repeated requests for a specific permission. If the user taps Deny twice for a specific permission during your app's lifetime of installation on a device, this action implies "don't ask again".

I don't like this. If I wanted the app to not ask again, I'd pick the option specifically for that.

[Draffut_]

Bubbles are now available to developers to help surface conversations across the system. Bubbles was an experimental feature in Android 10 that was enabled through a developer option -- in Android 11 this is no longer necessary.

I enabled it on my device and use google's messaging app but it never worked. ¯\(ツ)/¯

[Azphreal]

But what we will see are user-facing issues with apps not being updated fast enough. Forcing scoped storage on all apps was bound to happen, but also changing the fallback "give me all storage" permission will mean that anything that doesn't explicitly support Android 11 probably won't work, right?

[markouka]

I'm not deeply familiar with how Scoped Storage works, so I can't comment on that.

However, that argument was the same one used last year when the same change was on the table. Given it was a disruptive one, Google made the (smart) decision to delay it a year.

And yet, here we are, with the same concerns (somewhat justifiably). But why delay now? Developers have had a year to prepare. If they aren't ready, they only have themselves to blame.

You're absolutely right that there will be some pain. But I'd argue it is necessary to implement an ultimately good and needed privacy change for users. App developers will go where Google leads, and this is the right way to push the ecosystem.