In February 2020, Google made a gift for developers - opened access to the Android 11 Developer Preview program.

Currently, the very first version of Android 11 Developer Preview 1 is already available to developers , which can be installed on Google Pixel 4/4XL, Pixel 3a/3aXL, Pixel 3/3XL and Pixel 2/2XL smartphones by manual flashing using a system image. Developers can also use Android Emulator through Android Studio and SDK Manager to test Developer Preview 1.

Google released Developer Preview 1 about a month earlier than usual, as it has done with past versions of Android. Thus, the company is trying to give third-party developers extra time so that they can immediately evaluate innovations in advance, point out bugs and errors, and also send the first feedback to the Google team on the API of the new system. The Developer Preview 1 version is intended both for studying the new API of the system and the possible finding of critical bugs in this assembly.

In March 2020, Android 11 Developer Preview 2 will be available for developers, created and modified on the basis of Developer Preview 1. This version will already be used for early compatibility testing of various third-party mobile applications.

Android 11 Developer Preview 3 will be open in April 2020 for continued testing and feedback from Google developers, especially the SDK and Library teams on almost any issue.

Testers participating in the Android Beta program will be able to access the first beta version of Android 11 Beta 1 as early as May 2020.

The full presentation of Android 11 will take place at the annual Google I / O conference May 12-14, 2020 in Mountain View, California, USA.

In June 2020, the second beta version of the platform is expected to be released - Android 11 Beta 2, which will undergo final testing for compatibility of user applications, SDKs and libraries. At this stage, it is expected to obtain a stable platform, further changes in which will not affect the developed mobile applications.

In the third quarter of 2020, Android 11 Beta 3 will be released and later the final release of Android 11 with new functionality and a modified API is expected.

Android 11 is expected to bring many new security-related features, such as limiting background location access for many apps, changes to how biometric authentication works, the Bluetooth stack will be improved and secured, new settings for gesture navigation, including new Motion Sense gestures and improved touch sensitivity, a native ability to know the current refresh rate of the display, an updated user interface, improved work with flexible screens and neural networks announced, improved support for 5G networks, improved video decoding algorithm and reduced delays in streaming content through various online services. Google developers also said that in the new version of Android, applications will be given access, for example,

Developers from the XDA forum discovered a new gesture system codenamed Columbus in the first build of Android 11 Developer Preview 1. This feature does not require special hardware as it uses the phone's gyroscope and accelerometer. It turned out that a double tap on the back panel (Pixel 2 XL or Pixel 4 XL cover) can be used to perform the following actions:

• stop timers;
• turn off the alarm;
• camera launch;
• calling Google Assistant;
• play or pause music;
• mute incoming calls;
• other actions specified by the user.

Columbus features can work even when using a case and when the display is off.