Skip to main content

Android 11 public beta will debut during livestream, Google says

Google plans to announce the public beta for the upcoming Android 11 during a live stream on June 3. 

Android’s latest public beta was supposed to debut at the Google I/O conference on May 12-14, but the coronavirus pandemic forced that event to be canceled. The announcement will instead take place on YouTube beginning at 8 a.m. PT, according to a video spotted by Android Police. 

The event will include a Q&A portion where people can tweet their Android 11 questions to @AndroidDev using the hashtag #AskAndroid. Android Vice President Dave Burke and Senior Director of Product Management Stephanie Cuthbertson will be on deck to answer those questions. 

Join us for #Android11: The Beta Launch Show!

The beta release on June 3 will include the final SDK and NDK application programming interfaces for developers and open up Google Play publishing for apps targeting Android 11.

Google plans to release beta 2 in July and beta 3 in August, which will include candidate builds for final testing.

Android 11 will include a slew of new features.

One of them is a new “one-time permission,” feature which would be available for apps that only need to access specific data, such as location, one time. 

Android 11 could also possibly have the Scoped Storage feature. The feature would limit the access that apps have to the rest of your device for improved security and better storage management.

Another feature we can expect — initially discovered by XDA Developers — is a new gesture code-named ‘Columbus’ that can be triggered by double-tapping the back of Google Pixel phones. The gesture allows users to easily perform actions such as launching the camera or prompting the Google Assistant by merely tapping the back of their phone twice.

Android 11 most likely won’t be available to most phones until 2021. However, there is also a chance some new Android phones released later on this year will come with Android 11 already installed. 

Editors' Recommendations

Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
Google just announced 8 big Android updates. Here’s what’s new
A photo of many Android figurines on a white wall.

At Moblie World Congress (MWC ) 2024, Google is bringing a healthy bunch of new features to Android. In line with the AI push all across the industry, some notable AI-driven enhancements are on the table. There are also a handful of core Android features that sound practically amazing.
The first in line is Gemini. The generative AI chatbot recently got a standalone app for Android, and now it’s headed for the Google Messages app. Users can chat with Gemini directly in the messaging app and use its generative capabilities for a host of things, like drafting replies, refining a message, and more.

Another feature that was showcased a while ago is finally ready for prime time. Android Auto is gaining support for message summarization for standalone texts and group chats, and it can also suggest replies. With a single tap, users will also be able to drop a message, start a call, and share an estimated arrival time. The idea is to deploy AI for crucial tasks so that it can minimize distractions while driving.
Lookout, an accessibility-centric feature for users with vision challenges, is also getting meaningful AI love. On Android phones, Lookout will now read AI-generated captions and descriptions for media content. For now, the AI boost to Lookout and Messages is limited to the English language.

Read more
Google just announced Android 15. Here’s everything that’s new
The Android 15 logo on a smartphone.

Android fans, it's time to start your hype engines. Google just released the first developer preview for Android 15 — kicking off the release of the next big Android update.

This is just the first step in a months-long process of Android 15's rollout, which will see numerous developer previews and betas before the final release later this year. So, what's new, when is Android 15 officially releasing, and should you download it? Here's everything you need to know.
What's new in Android 15

Read more
Google is launching a powerful new AI app for your Android phone
Google Gemini app on Android.

Remember Bard, Google’s answer to ChatGPT? Well, it is now officially called Gemini. Also, all those fancy AI features that previously went by the name Duet AI have been folded under the Gemini branding. In case you haven’t been following up all the AI development flood, the name is derived from the multi-modal large language model of the same name.

To go with the renaming efforts, Google has launched a standalone Gemini app on Android. Moreover, the Gemini experience is also being made available to iPhone users within the Google app on iOS. But wait, there’s more.

Read more