Android 11 Features
Android 11 introduces great new features and APIs for developers. The sections below help you learn about features for your apps and get started with the related APIs.
Screens
Better support for waterfall displays
Android 11 provides several APIs to support waterfall displays, displays which wrap around the edge of the device. These displays are treated as a variant of displays with display cutouts. The existing DisplayCutout.getSafeInset…() methods now return the safe inset to avoid waterfall areas as well as cutouts.
Hinge angle sensor and foldables
Android 11 makes it possible for apps running on devices with hinge-based screen configurations to determine the angle of the hinge by providing a new sensor with TYPE_HINGE_ANGLE, and a new SensorEvent that can monitor the hinge angle and provides a measurement in degrees between two integral parts of the device. You can use these raw measurements to perform granular animations as the user manipulates the device.
Conversations
Conversation improvements
Android 11 makes a number of improvements to the way conversations are handled. Conversations are real-time, bidirectional communications between two or more people. These conversations are given special prominence, and users have several new options in how to interact with them.
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Chat Bubbles
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.
5G visual indicators
On Android 11 (API level ‘R’) and higher, apps with android.Manifest.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE permission can request telephony display information updates through PhoneStateListener.onDisplayInfoChanged(). This includes radio access technology information for marketing and branding purposes.
Rich media in quick replies
Beginning in Android 11, users can insert images and other rich media content into quick replies. To support this feature, apps need to add information to RemoteInput notifications specifying which MIME types they can handle.
Performance and quality
Wireless debugging
Android 11 supports deploying and debugging your app wirelessly from your workstation via Android Debug Bridge (adb). For example, you can deploy your debuggable app to multiple remote devices without physically connecting your device via USB and contending with common USB connection issues, such as driver installation.
