Android 11 Developer Preview: Best Features to Look Forward

As with all developer previews, features will come and features will go. You won’t really see anything concrete till Google I/O to be held in May of this year. At present the Android 11 developer preview is for developers only. But still there are some noteworthy features to talk about here. But before you get your hopes up, it’s worth to note that Google releases features that don’t actually make it to the final cut. Right now there are some new features to which will be added more features between now and Android 11’s final release. So without wasting any more time let’s take a look at what Android 11 has in store for use till now.

Built- in Screen Recorder to wait for in Android 11 Developer Preview: 

This has had a disappointing start back in Android 10 and had been pulled out too. Now the Built in screen recorder is back for a repeat performance. Now you’d find it in quick settings in the overflow panel.

For now it looks like a proper app, which may not be so in the coming months. Only time will tell. A tap on the icon starts recording while another tap stops recording. At present it does not record audio. We can only hope that the recorder stays till the final release of Android 11.

Pin your Favorite Apps: 

Another feature that didn’t make it to the official Android 10 was pinning your favorite apps to the Share Menu. This is to ensure easy access. Why exactly it didn’t make it to Android 10 only Google knows. But we hope these interesting features remains till the official release of Android 11.

The feature works when you share anything from an app you can tap and hold the app icon to pin it. This will make sure that it’s always at the top, good to go for future sharing.

Notification History in Android 11 Developer Preview: 

You’d need to tweak things a bit before you see this new feature. As shown by Developers with this feature you can get the notification history page. This something you can already see but it’s not easy to find. With this new feature you’ll be able to look at your notification history easily. Hope this one too makes it to Android 11.

Scheduled Dark Mode: 

At present Android does have dark mode but what it does not have is a scheduling system. With iOS you can schedule the mode so that it automatically turns on and off at predetermined times. This has been something that has been lacking for some time now in Android. But in the developer preview of Android 11 it does makes an appearance.

Bluetooth remains on: 

Another helpful feature found in Android 11 Developer Preview is that Bluetooth now remains on when you turn on airplane mode. This, however will work only if you are currently connected to a device when you switch on airplane mode.

Get Ready for Google Game Developers Conference

Google is all set to have their annual Game Developers conference in March. Since the last several years Google’s game developer conference has centered around the mobile and cloud services. A recent blog from the tech giant has detailed what this year’s conference has in store. The company has various divisions offering a variety of services. Google game developers conference is all set to bring in these various divisions under one banner.

Activities lined up in Google Game Developers Conference: 

A series of innovations from each Google division team is all set to be a part of the keynote. These will include innovations from Google Play, Google Cloud as well as Stadia. Last year around there was no separate keynote for Stadia. Like all the keynotes, Stadia too will have a live stream for those who can’t attend the function this year. Speaking of the function, the Google game developers conference is all set to be held in San Francisco this time.

Starting from March 18 – 20, the tech giant will have a Games Booth which will have demos, 1:1 plus a few “surprises”.

Start of the Conference: 

The first day is normally devoted to the latest in Android games and cloud services. On Monday evening one session of Stadia is lined up. However the bulk of such talks are scheduled for the next day. Google Cloud will be conducting all these. There’s also a talk on Semantic ML tool which helps create realistic characters and in game AIs.

More of the itinerary will be given later. Attendance to any of these sessions will require a Google game developers conference pass.

Few of the many Topics Lined Up: 

These are some of the Topics that are in store for attendees-

• Open Match- this is an open source matchmaking project. In this session, you will learn how game companies are incorporating this product in their various games. Next lined up is a talk on Google Cloud and Stadia. In this talk you will see how both these complement each other to give you the best experience while playing games as well as developing them.

• Destiny2- in this talk a senior developer gives his account of how he built Destiny 2 for a brand new platform. From testing to graphics to tweaking and latency, you’ll be walked through the entire process.

• Vulkan Graphics- in this session Google will be talking about their Vulkan graphics API development. They will also talk about what’s in store with the 1.2 release as well.

• Cloud Gaming and all that it beholds- In this talk Stadia’s partners will take you through what it took to bring their games to a new platform. You will also be given a low down on the capabilities of Stadia in creating newer game playing experiences.

• Google’s Machine Learning and Game Development- This talk is mainly geared at showing how various experts have used machine learning in a variety of ways to better their games.

Google has more sessions line up which they will release later.

Google I/O 2020 starts May 12th

Google is all set to have its next developer conference in May. The tech giants Google I/O 2020 is all set to take place between the 12th of May to the 14th of May. The latest news of the I/O conference came after users participated in an annual I/O teaser. This event had an online game in collaboration with other partners to restore a game version of a satellite network. 

The game that gave news of Google I/O 2020: 

The game was played as a prequel to Google’s I/O conference to be held later this year. In the game participants had to fix a satellite network connection. At the end of the game when all the participants had achieved the network, the constellation of satellites spelt out a date. This date happens to be the date of Google’s I/O conference- 12th May.

Location of Google I/O 2020: 

According to a tweet by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Google’s I/O conference 2020 is to be held at the Shoreline amphitheater, Mountain View. This is near Google’s HQ and is the same place where Google has held countless other conferences.

In Other News: 

Google I/O 2019 was the year when Google blessed the world with the budget friendly Pixel 3A and 3A XL. These phones were pretty decent and had a good camera to boot.

Rumors are astrife that this year’s I/O conference will see a new Pixel phone- the Pixel 4A. The latest in the Google Pixel line up is pegged to have a hole punch display, a square camera bump and a 3.5mm headphone jack- which is not something you see these days.

The look and feel of the Pixel 4A will be much like that of its predecessor, the only thing different will be a single camera set up at the back rather than the dual camera system that the Pixel 4 had.

9to5Google reported that the Pixel 4A may release at the same time the Pixel 3A released last year, which is a reasonable assumption. In that case, the Pixel 4A seems likely to grace Google I/O 2020.

2019 was the year that we got Nest Hub Max, so this year we may see the likes of more nest hardware at Google I/O 2020. Google I/O is also the place to be to get news of upcoming updates to Android and other updates to Google’s software and services.

New Android Version at Google I/O 2020: 

The tech giant may also release news of its latest Android version to be called Android 11. At present there is not much to tell about the new Android OS but if recent rumors are to go by then this times version may have support for dark mode scheduling. Another thing on the agenda will be talks on enhanced security and privacy on Android. Apart from all this the tech giant is also supposed to give updates to its Google assistant.

Well at present this is all we have on Google I/O 2020.