Third preview release of Android 11 mobile platform

Google

Android 11 phones beta developer programming feature preview

Google introduced the third test version of the open-source mobile platform Android 11. Android 11 is expected to be released in the third quarter of 2020. A preliminary testing programme has been proposed to assess the new features of the platform. Firmware assemblies are prepared for Pixel 2 , 2 XL, Pixel 3 , 3 XL, Pixel 3a , 3a XL and Pixel 4 , 4 XL devices. For those who installed last test release provided OTA-update.

Major changes from the first and second Android 11 test releases:

Added API to obtain information about the reasons for the termination of the program, allowing to determine whether the program was terminated by the user, as a result of a failure or was forcibly completed by the operating system. The API also provides an opportunity to evaluate the state of the program immediately before completion.

Added GWP-Asan, a heap analyzer that allows you to find and fix problems caused by unsafe memory work. GWP-Asan analyzes memory distribution operations with minimal overhead and detects anomalies. By default, GWP-Asan is enabled for platform executables and system applications. The application of GWP-Asan to its applications requires a separate inclusion.

Android 11 beta release date.

The ADB utility (Android Debug Bridge) adds an incremental mode of installing APK packets ("adb install -incremental"),allowing for a significant acceleration of installing large programs such as games during their development. The main feature of the mode is that when you install, the necessary parts of the package are transferred first, and the rest is loaded in the background without blocking the possibility of starting the program. For example, when installing APK files larger than 2GB in the new mode, the time to start is reduced to 10 times. Incremental installations so far only work on Pixel 4 and 4XL devices, the number of supported devices will be extended by the release.

Debugging mode is completely redesigned with ADB running on top of wireless connection. Unlike TCP,IP debugging, debugging via Wi-Fi does not require cable connection to configure and can store previously made connections. There are also plans to implement a simpler QR interface shown in Android Studio.

Data access audit tools have been updated to analyse which user data the application is accessing and after which user actions. Some API audit calls have been renamed.