Just better on Android notifications.
Notifications in Android 11 are now grouped into three categories: Conversations, Notifications, and Quiet. Conversations – WhatsApp, Messenger, Texts, DMS Etc. by separating it from the rest, it puts the most important material in front and in the center.
But that’s not the best part of the Android 11 notification update. Google has also created a new way to communicate with your friends and family, so you no longer have to hunt to retrieve conversations you had when you returned your fellow texts. Chat bubbles are Android’s new method of making conversations more fluid.
Instead of republishing conversation notifications at the top of your screen, by hiding them in the notification bar, Android bubbles up a little with your friend’s photos on your screen. The bubble will display the text of your friend’s instructions, and you can tap to expand the conversation or reply. But, conveniently, it doesn’t leave you in the app, so you can watch YouTube videos of water skiing squirrels without interruption.
Those other notifications already provided by Android are on top of the goodies: you can snooze the notifications you want to see later, but can’t find right now. You can long-press the notification to manage the application in a way that bothers you – giving you “silent” notifications but you can only see if you drag down the notification shade.
He said: Sure, it’s a lot of customization that can get complicated very quickly. Notifications have an appeal for the iPhone’s “on” or “off” (you can do that, too, in Android, of course).
But the main way many people interact with our phones are notifications. News alerts, text messages, your friend’s Instagram photos, ticket ok videos, YouTube subscriptions … it all disrupts our day, and can be intrusive if not handled properly.
Maybe you think you don’t need to watch a CNN alert right away (which of course you do) – snooze it. Or mute Facebook alerts so you can pick up when you catch up. But if you want every time your mom sends you an email from her mahjong group … Android will make sure she does when she does.
Most annoyingly, iPhone owners have to swipe and then tap to cancel individual notifications (you can’t just swipe them away like Android). And this week, that obvious Android advantage just got better: if you quickly reject a notification, Android has developed a notification history setting that can see every notification your phone receives – fired or otherwise.