Google Android 11 comes with new privacy controls, powerful tools

With a focus on managing your conversations and privacy, Google on Tuesday rolled out the much-anticipated Android 11 that comes with features like location privacy for employees, built-in screen recording and more.

Android 11 will begin rolling out on select Pixel, OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO and realme phones, with more partners launching and upgrading devices over the coming months.

Dave Burke, VP, Android Engineering said in a blog post that in Android 11, one-time permissions will allow users to grant single use access to their most sensitive permissions: microphone, camera and location.

“The next time the app needs access to the sensors, it must ask you for your permission again,” Burke said.

If you haven’t used an app that you installed on your device in a while, you may not want it to keep accessing your data.

Android will now “auto-reset” permissions for your unused apps and notify you accordingly. You can always decide to re-grant the app permissions the next time you use the app.

In Android 11, conversations across messaging apps will be moved to a dedicated space in the notifications section, making it easy to manage conversations in one spot

One can also prioritise conversations from the key people in his or her life.

“Bubbles makes multitasking on your device a breeze. You can now respond to important conversations without having to switch back and forth between what you’re doing and your messaging app,” Burke said.

With built-in screen recording, you can capture and share what’s happening on your phone.

“Record with sound from your mic, device or both — no extra app required”.

With Android 11, users can now access all their smart devices in one place, simply by long pressing the power button.

“You can now quickly switch the device your media is playing on, so you can take your music with you from your headphones to your speaker without missing a beat”.

For Android Enterprise users, Android 11 brings the privacy protections they get on a personally-owned device to their company-owned device.

“The work profile gives your IT department tools to manage a device without monitoring your personal profile data or activity on your phone,” Burke said.

Employees will now see separate tabs for work and personal when they share files, open content or go into their settings menu.

Google Calendar will allow people to see personal events in their work calendar, helping to better schedule around commitments across their day.

Personal calendar events will remain privately stored on device in the personal profile, invisible to both colleagues and IT, Google said.

“We’ve also enhanced our agreements with device manufacturers to help ensure all work profile privacy protections are reliably enforced”, the company said.