Quote:Today, Google is releasing the third beta of Android 11, its next major OS feature update. As you'd expect by now, there's not much that's new, especially since platform stability was declared in the last build. This only meant that the platform behavior was finalized, not that the OS as a whole didn't need anymore fixes.
 
The only thing that's really changed has to do with the Exposure Notifications System, which is for COVID-19 contact tracing. Now, users can run Exposure Notification apps without having to turn on location settings. Google says that this is the only thing it's making such an exception for.
 
Other than that, it's all about getting your app ready for Android 11. Google is requesting that all app and game developers finish testing compatibility with the updates, and publish them to the Play Store. Otherwise, it could leave users stuck after upgrading to the new OS.
 
That new OS should arrive soon though, and it will be the next major update (Google has been pushing out the odd bug fix beta update, so there could be another one of those). It was promised for Q3, so it should definitely arrive by the end of September. Today's build is for Pixel 2 phones and above, except for the new Pixel 4a, for which support is arriving soon.