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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.

For a detailed list of new, modified, and removed APIs, read the API diff report. For details on new APIs visit the Android API reference — new APIs are highlighted for visibility. Also, to learn about areas where platform changes may affect your apps, be sure to check out Android 11 behavior changes for apps that target Android R and for all apps, as well as privacy changes.

New experiences

Device controls

Android 11 includes a new ControlsProviderService API that you can use to expose controls for connected, external devices. These controls appear under Device controls in the Android power menu. For more information, see Control external devices.

Media Controls

Android 11 updates how media controls are displayed. Media controls appear near quick settings. Sessions from multiple apps are arranged in a swipeable carousel which includes streams playing locally on the phone, remote streams, such as those detected on external devices or cast sessions, and previous, resumable sessions in the order they were last played.

Users can restart previous sessions from the carousel without having to start the app. When playback begins, the user interacts with the media controls in the usual way.

For more information, see media controls.

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. To render your app content in the waterfall area, do the following:

Call DisplayCutout.getWaterfallInsets() to get exact dimensions of the waterfall inset.

Set the window layout attribute layoutInDisplayCutoutMode to LAYOUT_IN_DISPLAY_CUTOUT_MODE_ALWAYS to allow the window to extend into the cutout and waterfall areas on all edges of the screen. You must make sure that no essential content is in the cutout or waterfall areas.

Note: If you do not set the window to LAYOUT_IN_DISPLAY_CUTOUT_MODE_ALWAYS , Android displays the window in letterboxed mode, avoiding the notch and waterfall areas.

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.

See Foldables.

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.

For more information about conversations and how your app can support them, see People and conversations.

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.

If an app targets Android 11 (API level 30) or higher, its notifications are not presented as bubbles unless they fulfill the new conversation requirements. Specifically, the notification must be associated with a shortcut.

Prior to Android 11, if you wanted a notification to be bubbled, you needed to explicitly specify that the notification was set to always launch in document UI mode. Beginning with Android 11, you no longer need to explicitly make that setting; if the notification is bubbled, the platform automatically sets the notification to always launch in document UI mode.

There are a number of improvements to bubble performance, and users have more flexibility in enabling and disabling bubbles from each app. For developers who implemented experimental support, there are a few changes to the APIs in Android 11:

The BubbleMetadata.Builder() constructor with no parameters is deprecated. Instead, use either of the two new constructors BubbleMetadata.Builder(PendingIntent, Icon) or BubbleMetadata.Builder(String) .

constructor with no parameters is deprecated. Instead, use either of the two new constructors or . Create BubbleMetadata from a shortcut ID by calling BubbleMetadata.Builder(String) . The string passed should match the shortcut ID provided to Notification.Builder .

from a shortcut ID by calling . The string passed should match the shortcut ID provided to . Create bubble icons with Icon.createWithContentUri() , or with the new method createWithAdaptiveBitmapContentUri() .

5G visual indicators

For information on displaying 5G indicators on users' devices, see Tell your users when they're on 5G.

Privacy

Android 11 introduces a large number of changes and restrictions to enhance user privacy. To learn more, see the Privacy page.

Security

Biometric authentication updates

To help you control the level of security for your app's data, Android 11 provides several improvements to biometric authentication. These changes also appear in the Jetpack Biometric library.

Authentication types

Android 11 introduces the BiometricManager.Authenticators interface, which you can use to declare the types of authentication that your app supports.

Determine which authentication type was used

After the user authenticates, you can check whether the user authenticated using a device credential or a biometric credential by calling getAuthenticationType() .

Additional support for auth-per-use keys

Android 11 provides more support for authentication using auth-per-use keys.

Deprecated methods

Android 11 deprecates the following methods:

The setDeviceCredentialAllowed() method.

method. The setUserAuthenticationValidityDurationSeconds() method.

method. The overloaded version of canAuthenticate() that takes no arguments.

Secure sharing of large datasets

In some situations, such as those that involve machine learning or media playback, your app might want to use the same large dataset as another app. In previous versions of Android, your app and another app would each need to download a separate copy of the same dataset.

To help reduce data redundancy, both over the network and on disk, Android 11 allows these large datasets to be cached on the device using shared data blobs. To learn more about sharing datasets, see the in-depth guide on sharing large datasets.

Perform file-based encryption after an OTA restart without user credentials

After the device completes an OTA update and restarts, the Credential Encrypted keys (CE) that are placed in credential-protected storage are immediately available for File-Based Encryption (FBE) operations. This means that, after an OTA update, your app can resume operations that require the CE keys before the user enters their PIN, pattern, or password.

Note: This change only affects device restarts that occur because of an OTA update. If your app always needs access to CE keys before the user enters their PIN, pattern, or password following a device restart, continue to support Direct Boot

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.

To use wireless debugging, you need to pair your device to your workstation using a pairing code. Your workstation and device must be connected to the same wireless network. To connect to your device, follow these steps:

On your workstation, update to the latest version of the SDK Platform-Tools. On the device, enable developer options. Enable the Wireless debugging option. On the dialog that asks Allow wireless debugging on this network?, click Allow. Select Pair device with pairing code. Take note of the pairing code, IP address, and port number displayed on the device (see image). On your workstation, open a terminal and navigate to android_sdk /platform-tools . Run adb pair ipaddr : port . Use the IP address and port number from step 5. When prompted, enter the pairing code that you received in step 5. A message should indicate that your device has been successfully paired. Enter pairing code: 482924 Successfully paired to 192.168.1.130:37099 [guid=adb-235XY] (For Linux or Microsoft Windows only) Run adb connect ipaddr : port . Use the IP address and port under Wireless debugging (see image below).

ADB Incremental APK installation

Installing large (2GB+) APKs on a device can take a long time, even if only a small change is made to an app. ADB (Android Debug Bridge) Incremental APK installation accelerates this process by installing enough of the APK to launch the app while streaming the remaining data in the background. adb install will use this feature automatically if it is supported by the device and you have the latest SDK Platform-Tools installed. If it is not supported, the default installation method is silently used.

Use the following adb command to use the feature. If the device does not support incremental installation, the command fails and prints a verbose explanation.

adb install --incremental

Before running an ADB incremental APK install, you must sign your APK and create an APK Signature Scheme v4 file. The v4 signature file must be placed next to the APK for this feature to work.

Error detection using the native memory allocator

GWP-ASan is a native memory allocator feature that helps find use-after-free and heap-buffer-overflow bugs. You can enable this feature globally or for specific subprocesses of your app. To learn more, see the GWP-Asan guide.

Neural Networks API 1.3

Android 11 expands and improves the Neural Networks API (NNAPI).

New operations

NNAPI 1.3 introduces a new operand type, TENSOR_QUANT8_ASYMM_SIGNED , to support TensorFlow Lite's new quantization scheme.

Additionally, NNAPI 1.3 introduces the following new operations:

QUANTIZED_LSTM

IF

WHILE

ELU

HARD_SWISH

FILL

RANK

New ML controls

NNAPI 1.3 introduces new controls to help machine learning run smoothly:

QoS API: The new Quality of Service API includes support for prioritization and task deadlines in NNAPI with the following new functions: ANeuralNetworksDevice_wait() ANeuralNetworksCompilation_setPriority() ANeuralNetworksCompilation_setTimeout() ANeuralNetworksExecution_setTimeout()

Memory domain input/output: NNAPI 1.3 includes support for memory domains as input and output to execution. This removes unnecessary copies of the same data among different system components, improving the runtime performance of Android neural networks. This feature adds a set of new NDK APIs for use with ANeuralNetworksMemoryDesc and ANeuralNetworkMemory objects, including the following functions: ANeuralNetworksMemoryDesc_create() ANeuralNetworksMemoryDesc_free() ANeuralNetworksMemoryDesc_addInputRole() ANeuralNetworksMemoryDesc_addOutputRole() ANeuralNetworksMemoryDesc_setDimensions() ANeuralNetworksMemoryDesc_finish() ANeuralNetworksMemory_createFromDesc() ANeuralNetworksMemory_copy() To learn more, see the neural network memory domain sample.

Dependency API and sync fence support: NNAPI 1.3 includes support for asynchronous compute with dependencies, allowing greatly reduced overhead when invoking small chained models. This feature adds the following new functions: ANeuralNetworksEvent_createFromSyncFenceFd() ANeuralNetworksEvent_getSyncFenceFd() ANeuralNetworksExecution_startComputeWithDependencies()

Control flow: NNAPI 1.3 includes support for general control flow with the new graph operations ANEURALNETWORKS_IF and ANEURALNETWORKS_WHILE , which accept other models as arguments using the new ANEURALNETWORKS_MODEL operand type. Additionally, this feature adds the following new functions: ANeuralNetworksModel_setOperandValueFromModel() ANeuralNetworks_getDefaultLoopTimeout() ANeuralNetworks_getMaximumLoopTimeout() ANeuralNetworksExecution_setLoopTimeout()



NDK Thermal API

When devices get too warm, they may throttle the CPU and/or GPU, and this can affect apps in unexpected ways. Apps or games that incorporate complex graphics, heavy computation, or sustained network activity are more likely to encounter issues.

Use the NDK Thermal API in Android 11 to monitor temperature changes on the device, and then take action to maintain lower power usage and cooler device temperature. This API is similar to the Java Thermal API; you can use it to receive notifications for any thermal status change or to poll the current status directly.

Text and input

Improved IME transitions

Android 11 introduces new APIs to improve transitions for input method editors (IMEs), such as on-screen keyboards. These APIs make it easier to adjust your app's content in synchronization with the IME's appearance and disappearance, and with other elements like the status and navigation bars.

To show an IME while any EditText has the focus, call view.getInsetsController().show(Type.ime()) . (You can call this method on any view in the same hierarchy as the focused EditText , you don't have to call it on the EditText specifically.) To hide the IME, call view.getInsetsController().hide(Type.ime()) . You can check whether an IME is currently visible by calling view.getRootWindowInsets().isVisible(Type.ime()) .

To synchronize your app's views with the appearance and disappearance of the IME, set a listener on a view by providing a WindowInsetsAnimation.Callback to View.setWindowInsetsAnimationCallback() . (You can set this listener on any view, it doesn't have to be an EditText .) The IME calls your listener's onPrepare() method, then it calls onStart() at the beginning of the transition. It then calls onProgress() at each progression in the transition. When the transition has finished, the IME calls onEnd() . At any point in the transition, you can find out how much progress the transition has made by calling WindowInsetsAnimation.getFraction() .

For an example of how to use these APIs, see the new WindowInsetsAnimation code sample.

Controlling the IME animation

You can also take control of the IME animation, or the animation of another system bar like the navigation bar. To do this, first call setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener() to set a new listener for window inset changes:

Kotlin rootView.setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener { rootView, windowInsets -> val barsIme = windowInsets.getInsets(Type.systemBars() or Type.ime()) rootView.setPadding(barsIme.left, barsIme.top, barsIme.right, barsIme.bottom) // We return the new WindowInsets.CONSUMED to stop the insets being // dispatched any further into the view hierarchy. This replaces the // deprecated WindowInsets.consumeSystemWindowInsets() and related // functions. WindowInsets.CONSUMED } Java mRoot.setOnApplyWindowInsetsListener(new View.OnApplyWindowInsetsListener() { @Override public WindowInsets onApplyWindowInsets(View v, WindowInsets insets) { Insets barsIME = insets.getInsets(Type.systemBars() | Type.ime()); mRootView.setPadding(barsIme.left, barsIme.top, barsIme.right, barsIme.bottom); // We return the new WindowInsets.CONSUMED to stop the insets being // dispatched any further into the view hierarchy. This replaces the // deprecated WindowInsets.consumeSystemWindowInsets() and related // functions. return WindowInsets.CONSUMED; } });

To move the IME or other system bar, call the controller's controlWindowInsetsAnimation() method:

Kotlin view.windowInsetsController.controlWindowInsetsAnimation( Type.ime(), 1000, LinearInterpolator(), cancellationSignal, object : WindowInsetsAnimationControlListener() { fun onReady(controller: WindowInsetsAnimationController, types: Int) { // update IME inset controller.setInsetsAndAlpha(Insets.of(0, 0, 0, inset), 1f /* alpha */, 0.1 /* fraction progress */) } } ); Java mRoot.getWindowInsetsController().controlWindowInsetsAnimation( Type.ime(), 1000, new LinearInterpolator(), cancellationSignal, new WindowInsetsAnimationControlListener() { @Override public void onReady( @NonNull WindowInsetsAnimationController controller, int types ) { // update IME inset controller.setInsetsAndAlpha(Insets.of(0, 0, 0, inset), 1f /* alpha */, 0.1 /* fraction progress */); } @Override public void onCancelled() {} });

Updates to the ICU libraries

Android 11 updates the android.icu package to use version 66 of the ICU library, compared to version 63 in Android 10. The new library version includes updated CLDR locale data and a number of enhancements to internationalization support in Android.

Notable changes in the new library versions include the following:

Many formatting APIs now support a new return object type that extends FormattedValue .

. The LocaleMatcher API is enhanced with a builder class, support for the java.util.Locale type, and a result class featuring additional data about a match.

API is enhanced with a builder class, support for the type, and a result class featuring additional data about a match. Unicode 13 is now supported.

Media

Allocating MediaCodec buffers

Android 11 includes a new MediaCodec APIs that gives apps more control when allocating input and output buffers. This lets your app manage memory more efficiently.

New classes:

New methods:

In addition, the behavior of two methods in MediaCodec.Callback() have changed:

onInputBufferAvailable() Instead of calling MediaCodec.getInputBuffer() and MediaCodec.queueInputBuffer() with the index, if configured to use the Block Model API, apps should use MediaCodec.getQueueRequest with the index, attaching a LinearBlock/HardwareBuffer to the slot. onOutputBufferAvailable() Instead of calling MediaCodec.getOutputBuffer() with the index, apps may use MediaCodec.getOutputFrame() with the index to get the OutputFrame object with more information and LinearBlock/HardwareBuffer buffers.

Low-latency decoding in MediaCodec

Android 11 enhances MediaCodec to support low-latency decoding for games and other real-time apps. You can check whether a codec supports low-latency decoding by passing FEATURE_LowLatency to MediaCodecInfo.CodecCapabilities.isFeatureSupported() .

To turn low-latency decoding on or off, do either of the following:

Set the new key KEY_LOW_LATENCY to 0 or 1 using MediaCodec.configure() .

to 0 or 1 using . Set the new parameter key PARAMETER_KEY_LOW_LATENCY to 0 or 1 using MediaCodec.setParameters() .

Note: Supporting low-latency decoding can require additional resources, such as higher power consumption. Use low-latency decoding only when necessary.

New AAudio function AAudioStream_release()

The function AAudioStream_close() releases and closes an audio stream at the same time. This can be dangerous. If another process tries to access the stream after it's been closed, the process will crash.

The new function AAudioStream_release() releases the stream but does not close it. This frees its resources and leaves the stream in a known state. The object persists until you call AAudioStream_close() .

MediaParser API

MediaParser is a new low level API for media extraction. It is more flexible than MediaExtractor and provides additional control over media extraction functionality.

Audio capture from a USB device

When an application without RECORD_AUDIO permission uses UsbManager to request direct access to a USB audio device with audio capture capability (such as a USB headset), a new warning message appears asking the user to confirm permission to use the device. The system ignores any “always use” option, so the user must acknowledge the warning and grant permission every time an app requests access.

To avoid this behavior, your app should request the RECORD_AUDIO permission.

Note: This behavior only applies to apps that connect directly to USB peripherals using the UsbManager API . The vast majority of media players, games, and communication apps use the Audio APIs and aren't affected by this change.

Concurrent mic access

Android 11 adds new methods to the AudioRecord , MediaRecorder , and AAudioStream APIs. These methods enable and disable the ability to capture concurrently regardless of the selected use case. See Sharing Audio Input.

Output switcher

Android 11 implements new behavior for apps that use the cast and mediarouter APIs.

In addition to accessing casting options from within an app the switching options also appear in the system media player. This helps to give the user a seamless journey when moving between devices as they change their viewing and listening contexts, such as watching video in the kitchen versus on a phone, or listening to audio in the home or car. See the output switcher.

Connectivity

Wi-Fi Passpoint enhancements

Passpoint enables apps to automatically and silently perform authentication and connect to secure Wi-Fi hotspots. Apps that target API level 30 and higher can use the following additional capabilities of Passpoint.

Expiration date enforcement and notification Enforcing expiration dates on profiles allows the framework to avoid auto-connection to access points with expired credentials, which are destined to fail. This prevents airtime usage, and saves battery and backend bandwidth. It displays a notification to the user when their profile is in range and has expired. FQDN matching Allow configuration of a named AAA domain separately from an Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) fully qualified domain name (FQDN), using an Extension/Android node in PerProviderSubscription (PPS) Management Object (MO). Self-signed private CAs For Passpoint R1 Profiles, Android accepts private self-signed CAs for connection authentication. Allow multiple profiles with identical FQDN Allow to install multiple Passpoint profiles with identical FQDN. The FQDN is not used as a key for profiles. Existing Passpoint APIs that require FQDN, such as remove , apply the request to all matching profiles with the same FQDN. Allow to install profiles without a Root CA certificate Profiles without a Root CA certificate are allowed. In this case, the system verifies the AAA server certificates against the public Root CA certificates installed in the trust store. Improved Home and Roaming provider matching The system matches Home or Roaming networks regardless of the advertised authentication method. Additionally, added support for Home matching for OtherHomePartners and HomeOIList lists.

Wi-Fi Suggestion API is expanded

Android 11 expands the Wi-Fi Suggestion API to increase your app's network management capabilities, including the following:

Connectivity management apps can manage their own networks by allowing disconnection requests.

Passpoint networks are integrated into the Suggestion API and can be suggested to the user.

Analytics APIs enable you to get information about the quality of your networks.

CallScreeningService updates

Starting in Android 11, a CallScreeningService can request information about the STIR/SHAKEN verification status (verstat) for incoming calls. This information is provided as part of the call details for incoming calls.

If a CallScreeningService holds the READ_CONTACTS permission, the app is notified when there are incoming calls from, or outgoing calls to, a number in the user's contacts.

Open Mobile API updates

Beginning with Android 11, Open Mobile API (OMAPI) has additional functionality:

Parse rules for carrier privileges.

Customize embedded Secure Element (eSE) access or provision an eSE using one or more of the following: System privileged permission Configurable Access Rule Application Master (ARA-M) application identifiers (AIDs) System API to reset OMAPI reader

Provide readers a clear indicator for applications to filter device capability.

Performant VPNs

Apps that target API level 30 and higher or that are running on devices launched on API level 29 and higher can apply IKEv2/IPsec to VPNs for both user-configured and app-based VPNs.

The VPNs run native to the operating system, simplifying the code required to establish IKEv2/IPset VPN connections in an app.

Per-process network access control

For information on enabling network access on a per-process basis, see Manage network usage.

Allow multiple installed Passpoint configurations with the same FQDN

Starting in Android 11, you can use PasspointConfiguration.getUniqueId() to get a unique identifier for a PasspointConfiguration object, which enables your app’s users to install multiple profiles with the same fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

This functionality is helpful when a carrier deploys more than one combination of Mobile Country Code (MCC) and Mobile Network Code (MNC) on their network, but has only a single FQDN. On Android 11 and higher, it is possible to install more than one profile with the same FQDN that will match the network as the Home provider when the user installs a SIM with either MCC or MNC.

Note: Each configuration is identified by a unique key that depends on the content of the configuration. In order to update an existing profile, you must remove it using WifiManager.removePasspointConfiguration() . Not removing the existing configuration will cause a new profile to be added with both configurations.

GNSS antenna support

Android 11 introduces the GnssAntennaInfo class, which makes it possible for your app to make more use of centimeter-accuracy positioning that the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can provide.

Learn more in the guide on antenna calibration information.

Graphics

NDK image decoder

The NDK ImageDecoder API provides a standard API for Android C/C++ apps to decode images directly. App developers no longer need to use the framework APIs (via JNI) or bundle third-party image-decoding libraries. For more information, see the Image decoder developer guide.

Frame rate API

Android 11 provides an API that enables apps to inform the system of their intended frame rate, to reduce judder on devices that support multiple refresh rates. For information on how to use this API, see the Frame rate guide.

Requesting and checking for low latency support

Certain displays can perform graphics post-processing, such as some external displays and TVs. This post-processing improves the graphics but can increase latency. Newer displays which support HDMI 2.1 have an auto low latency mode (ALLM, also known as game mode), which minimizes latency by switching off this post-processing. For more details on ALLM, refer to the HDMI 2.1 specification.

A window can request that auto low latency mode be used, if it is available. ALLM is particularly useful for applications like games and videoconferencing, where low latency is more important than having the best possible graphics.

To toggle minimal post-processing on or off, call Window.setPreferMinimalPostProcessing() , or set the window's preferMinimalPostProcessing attribute to true . Not all displays support minimal post-processing; to find out if a particular display does support it, call the new method Display.isMinimalPostProcessingSupported() .

Note: If the user disables minimal post-processing, or if the display does not support low latency mode, calling Window.setPreferMinimalPostProcessing() has no effect.

Performant graphics debug layer injection

Applications can now load external graphics layers (GLES, Vulkan) into native application code to expose the same functionality as a debuggable app, but without incurring the performance overhead. This feature is especially important when profiling your application with tools like GAPID. To profile your app, include the following meta-data element in your app manifest file instead of making the application debuggable:

<application ... > <meta-data android:name="com.android.graphics.injectLayers.enable" android:value="true" /> </application>

Images and camera

Mute notification sounds and vibrations during active capture

Beginning with Android 11, when actively using the camera, your app can mute only vibrations, both sounds and vibrations, or neither using setCameraAudioRestriction() .

Expanded camera support in Android emulator

For information on the expanded support for cameras in the emulator starting with Android 11, see Camera support.

Support for concurrent use of more than one camera

Android 11 adds APIs to query support for using more than one camera at a time, including both a front-facing and rear-facing camera.

To check for support on the device on which your app is running, use the following methods:

getConcurrentCameraIds() returns a Set of combinations of camera IDs that can stream concurrently with guaranteed stream combinations when configured by the same application process.

returns a of combinations of camera IDs that can stream concurrently with guaranteed stream combinations when configured by the same application process. isConcurrentSessionConfigurationSupported() queries whether camera devices can concurrently support the corresponding session configurations.

Better support for HEIF images with multiple frames

Beginning with Android 11, if you call ImageDecoder.decodeDrawable() and pass an HEIF image containing a sequence of frames (such as an animation or a burst photo), the method returns an AnimatedImageDrawable containing the entire image sequence. On earlier versions of Android, the method returned a BitmapDrawable of just a single frame.

If the HEIF graphic contains multiple frames that are not in a sequence, you can retrieve an individual frame by calling MediaMetadataRetriever.getImageAtIndex() .

Accessibility

Updates for accessibility service developers

If you create a custom accessibility service, you can use the following features in Android 11:

The user-facing explanation of an accessibility service now allows for HTML and images in addition to plain text. This flexibility makes it easier to explain to end-users what your service does and how it can help them.

To work with a description of a UI element's state that's more semantically meaningful than contentDescription , call the getStateDescription() method.

, call the method. To request that touch events bypass the system's touch explorer, call setTouchExplorationPassthroughRegion() . Similarly, to request that gestures bypass the system's gesture detector, call setGestureDetectionPassthroughRegion() .

. Similarly, to request that gestures bypass the system's gesture detector, call . You can request IME actions, such as "enter" and "next", as well as screenshots of windows that don't enable the FLAG_SECURE flag.

Additional features

App process exit reasons

Android 11 introduces the ActivityManager.getHistoricalProcessExitReasons() method, which reports the reasons for any recent process terminations. Apps can use this method to gather crash diagnostic information, such as whether a process termination is due to ANRs, memory issues, or other reasons. Additionally, you can use the new setProcessStateSummary() method to store custom state information for later analysis.

The getHistoricalProcessExitReasons() method returns instances of the ApplicationExitInfo class, which contains information related to an app process's death. By calling getReason() on an instance of this class, you can determine why your app's process was killed. For example, a return value of REASON_CRASH indicates that an unhandled exception occurred in your app. If your app needs to ensure uniqueness for exit events, it can maintain an app-specific identifier, such as a hash value based on the timestamp from the getTimestamp() method.

Note: getHistoricalProcessExitReasons() method returns REASON_SIGNALED instead of REASON_LOW_MEMORY , and the return value of SIGKILL .



To check whether a device can report low-memory kills, call Some devices cannot report low-memory kills. On these devices, themethod returnsinstead of, and the return value of getStatus() isTo check whether a device can report low-memory kills, call ActivityManager.isLowMemoryKillReportSupported()

Resource loaders

Android 11 introduces a new API that allows apps to dynamically extend how resources are searched and loaded. The new API classes ResourcesLoader and ResourcesProvider are primarily responsible for providing the new functionality. Together, they provide the ability to supply additional resources and assets, or modify the values of existing resources and assets.

ResourcesLoader objects are containers that supply ResourcesProvider objects to an app's Resources instance. In turn, ResourcesProvider objects provide methods to load resource data from APKs and resource tables.

One primary use case for this API is custom asset loading. You can use loadFromDirectory() to create a ResourcesProvider that redirects the resolution of file-based resources and assets, causing it to search a specific directory rather than the application APK. You can access these assets through the open() family of methods from the AssetManager API class, just like with assets bundled in the APK.

APK signature scheme v4

Android 11 adds support for APK Signature Scheme v4. This scheme produces a new kind of signature in a separate file ( apk-name .apk.idsig ) but is otherwise similar to v2 and v3. No changes are made to the APK. This scheme supports ADB incremental APK installation, which speeds up APK install.

Dynamic intent filters

In order to receive intents, an app must declare at compile time which types of data it is able to receive by defining an intent filter in the app manifest. In Android 10 and lower, apps have no way of changing their intent filters at runtime. This is a problem for virtualization apps (such as virtual machines and remote desktops) because they have no way of knowing exactly what software the user will install inside them.

Android 11 introduces MIME groups, a new manifest element which allows an app to declare a dynamic set of MIME types in an intent filter and modify it programmatically at runtime. To use a MIME group, include a data element in your app manifest with the new android:mimeGroup attribute:

<intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND"/> <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/> <data android:mimeGroup="myMimeGroup"/> </intent-filter>

The value of the android:mimeGroup attribute is an arbitrary string ID that identifies the MIME group at runtime. You can access and update the contents of a MIME group by passing its ID to the following new methods in the PackageManager API class:

When you add a MIME type to a MIME group programmatically, it functions exactly the same as a static MIME type explicitly declared in the manifest.

Note: mimeGroup strings are defined on a per-package basis. Within the same package, you can use the same mimeGroup string in multiple intent filters or components to declare a MIME group that is shared between them. Different packages cannot share a MIME group, but they can use the same mimeGroup string without interfering with each other.

Autofill enhancements

Android 11 introduces improvements for autofill services.

Hint identifiers in AssistStructure.ViewNode

It is often useful for autofill services to compute a signature hash for a view based on the view's properties. The view hint is a particularly good property to include when computing a signature hash, but the hint string might change with the phone's locale. To solve this problem, Android 11 expands AssistStructure.ViewNode with a new getHintIdEntry() method, which returns the resource identifier for a view's hint text. This method provides a locale-independent value that you can use to compute signature hashes.

Datasets shown events

To help autofill services improve their suggestions, Android 11 provides a way to identify cases where an autofill service presented datasets but the user did not select any of them. In Android 11, FillEventHistory reports a new TYPE_DATASETS_SHOWN event type. FillEventHistory logs an event of this type whenever the autofill service presents one or more datasets to the user. Autofill services can use these events in conjunction with the existing TYPE_DATASET_SELECTED event to determine whether the user selected any of the provided autofill options.

IME integration

Keyboards and other IMEs can now display autofill suggestions inline, in a suggestion strip or similar interface, instead of in a drop-down menu. To protect sensitive information like passwords and credit-card numbers, the suggestions are displayed to the user but are not known to the IME until the user selects one. For information on how IMEs and password managers can support this feature, see Integrating autofill with keyboards.

Data sharing with content capture service

Starting in Android 11, your app can share data with the device's content capture service. This capability makes it easier for a device to deliver in-context intelligence, such as showing the name of a song that's currently playing in the user's environment.