Google postponed their plans for an online event to mark the rollout of the first Android 11 Beta just a few days ago, apparently based upon the demonstrations ongoing in the US. Unfortunately for Google someone forgot to toggle the rollout button and thus today an OTA has been going out to devices already on the developer previews to update them to the Beta.
The new Android 11 Beta for the Pixel 4 XL has the version number RPB1.200504.018 and although it is not widely rolled out it has rolled out just enough for users to be able to gather screenshots and test it out.
Mishaal Rahman from XDA Developers has been trawling through the new beta checking out the new changes. Amongst the changes there is the ability to enable media controls in Quick Settings, the ability to customise the Power Menu settings with device controls and wallet (Google Pay), new app suggestions for the Pixel Launcher dock and some hideous new icon shapes: vessel, tapered rect and pebble.
Here's a running thread of everything new that we're finding in Android 11 Beta 1.
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) June 1, 2020
You can be sure that there will be a lot more changes surface in the coming days but at this stage the number of devices it has rolled out to is extremely limited. You would expect that Google pulled the pin on it once they realised it was accidentally rolling out so don’t expect it to arrive on your device if it is already running the developer preview. If you want to see everything Mishaal has found so far head over to the Twitter link above and open the thread.
The changes found so far are already fairly extensive and while not all of them will make the final cut to the full public release it is good to see so many functional changes coming to our favourite operating system.
