Android 11 looks set to launch on September 8 after Google accidentally leaked the date in a video at its Smart Home summit.
The faux pas came courtesy of Michele Turner, Google’s product management director at its Smart Home Ecosystem division, who hosted a video for the developer-orientated summit that has a section noting "checklist for September 8 Android 11 launch". The video has since been pulled by Google, but our sibling site TechRadar spotted it and noted that this means September 8 is the likely launch date for Android 11.
- How to screen record on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac
- Best Android apps
- Plus: OnePlus Nord leaked cameras show promise — but we have questions
Given new versions of Android tend to launch around September and October time each year, usually coinciding with the reveal of new Pixel phones, a September launch for Android 11 was on the cards before the leak. But this accidental reveal by Google goes some way to confirm it.
What wasn’t detailed is what phones will receive the update to Android 11. Google’s Pixel phones and those on the Android One initiative, such as Nokia handsets, tend to get a new version of Android ahead of other Android phones.
OnePlus tends to be fairly quick at getting its phones onto the latest Android version, so we’d expect the OnePlus 8 Pro to get the Android 11 upgrade before 2020 comes to a close.
However, Samsung’s phones tend to drag their heels a for a lot longer, and one of the main criticism’s of the company’s phones is how long it can take for them to get upgrades to new versions of Android; something that might sting a little given the hefty price of the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Anecdotally speaking, it took a while for our Galaxy Note 10 Plus to get the upgrade to Android 10, with the software upgrade taking place this year despite Android 10 being released in 2019.
When Android 11 does land it’s expected to bring a whole suite of new features. These range from new privacy controls and dedicated conversation notifications, to a new power button menu, new media player widget, screen reading features, redesigned app icons, improved streaming services, and better ways to screen calls.
It’s set to be quite a significant Android update. But if you want to try it out before its official launch then you can give the Android 11 beta a spin, just be warned that it’s not a finalised version so you could encounter some glitches.
