Once a big name in the smartphone industry, Sony has been facing quite a tough time at the box office. Though Sony came up with a bunch of phones in 2020 and included all the high-end camera technology the company can port from its successful cameras, it could not stir the market as it would have hoped for. On the software update side as well, the company likes to keep things under the rug and does not share many details about its future update plans, etc.
Though some of Sony Xperia devices have never skipped a single month of the updates, a bit more clarity would help further. As Android 11 is already live and other OEMs are making their efforts to push the latest OS for their devices, there are brands like Sony, that are keeping mum on this matter at the moment. In this post, we will give you a dedicated Sony Android 11 update tracker along with a list of eligible list of devices that is speculated to pick up the Android 11 update. With that being said, let us get straight into the article itself:
What’s on Android 11?
Time and time again we have coined that Android 11 is a mature OS. Meaning that in the coming versions of the operating system from Google, you won’t see many aesthetic changes or a complete overhaul in the OS. Besides, it would be those minor tweaks and certain features that went under the radar in the previous versions that will come to the OS. Gone are the days, when we used to have a complete visual overhaul, as you are seeing what OnePlus did with OxygenOS 11. However, Google has brought in plenty of new features for users with Android 11. They are listed below:
- Scheduled Dark Theme: You can now schedule the dark mode on the basis of time. Meaning that you can schedule the dark mode to turn on after the clock hits a certain time.
- ‘Conversations’ Section in Notification Shade: The notification panel will now sort out all the conversations from different messaging apps into its own dedicated section. This would prioritize the conversations and app notifications according to importance.
- Built-in Screen Recorder: As seen in Android 10, Android 11 is finally bringing the in-built screen recording feature for the phones. Notably, you can now record your screen, show touches to create explainers, etc. just from the quick settings toggle in the notification panel.
- Pin Apps in the Share Menu: You can now pin your favorite apps to the share menu easily. This means that all your favorite apps or the most used apps would be at your disposal in the sharing menu.
- Send Images in Notification Replies: Apart from just the texts, you can now share images in the notification replies or quick replies as popularly known. This means no need to open the app, just paste the image and get on with your day.
- New APIs for 5G: Android 11 is built for the future of 5G and it brings new APIS for 5G support.
- Use Bluetooth Headphones in Airplane Mode: In the previous versions of Android, once you enable the Airplane Mode, all your wireless connections, including Bluetooth used to get turned off. But not anymore. Because with Android 11, users can keep listening to their songs on the Bluetooth headset even after the Airplane Mode is turned on.
- Scrolling screenshots: Scrolling screenshots allows the users to take a long screenshot of any webpage or article they found interesting, negating the need to take multiple short screenshots.
- Bubble Notifications on by Default: This feature has been there for the Facebook Messenger app. But now all the messaging apps will show up as a bubble icon on the home screen. This means that you don’t need to open the app and you can continue to chat using the Bubble.
- Show Refresh Rate: If your phone supports a high refresh rate, then you can now flaunt the high refresh rate by enabling the Show Refresh Rate option which would give your phone a cool look just like those high-end PCs.
- Power Menu Toggles: After a long time, power menu toggles are getting revamped. The visual change will include Emergency, Restart, and Power On/Off option being shifted over to the upper side, the middle screen will now contain buttons for Google Pay or another preferred online payments app. All your connected smart home devices will now also show up in the Power menu.
- New Permissions Options: Security options are taken to another level, because now in Android 11 users will be able to grant or deny permissions to any app, only one time. After this, the app would no longer ask you for permission.
- Background Location Access Must Be Granted Manually: Location is one thing that is of much importance to the user. And now with Android 11, you can set whether you wish to share your location with any app or not. You can choose the option to manually grant location access instead of the app choosing it automatically when you open the app.
- Music Player in Quick Settings: The music player when playing will show up on the upper half of the quick toggle menu, giving you easier access to the player interface and will also not interfere with the incoming message notifications.
Supported Devices List
Although there is no confirmed piece of information regarding the list of Android 11 supported devices by Sony as of now, as it is still very early days of Android 11, here is a tentative list that you can go through:
Xperia 8 also need android 11