Google released Android 11 Developer Preview 3 yesterday. It can be installed on all the Pixel smartphones except on the original duo. The DP1 debuted in February, followed by the DP2 in March. The search giant has planned a total of six Android 11 Developer Previews before officially launching the new OS in the second half of the year. That being said, just like the first two DPs, the Android 11 DP3 has also brought new features and changes.
Officially, Google has stated five new changes in Android 11 DP3 and they are as mentioned below.
App exit reasons updates
Apps on Android can exit for various reasons such as crash, system kill or user action. Being a developer, its necessary to know why the app exited. Hence, Google has introduced new exit reasons API to request details of the app’s recent exits.
GWP-ASan heap analysis
With GWP-ASan heap analysis, developers can find and fix memory safety issues. It is a sampling allocation tool that detects heap memory errors. It is enabled by default in platform binaries and system apps but developers can enable it on their apps as well.
ADB Incremental
Google has increased the installation speed of large APKs (2GB+) like games over ADB by 10x times. This feature is currently only available on Pixel 4/4XL as it requires the new Incremental File System. Developers will have to sign their APKs with the new APK signature scheme v4 format and use updated ADB command line tool to install them. Devices launching with Android 11 in the future will have the new file system to support this feature.
Wireless Debugging
The new ‘Wireless debugging’ in Developer options can utilize the full speed of the latest Wi-Fi standards. Developers can pair their Android 11 DP3-running device with their PC simply entering pair code. To further improve the experience, Google has plans to add QR code scanning for pairing in the future.
Data access auditing updates
Data access auditing lets developer instrument their app to better understand how it accesses user data and from which user flows. Additionally, several APIs have been renamed and hence it is advised to check out the changes.
Further, as per the timeline provided by Google, Android 11 Beta releases will begin next month, i.e. May. Which means like the last two years, developers and interested users will be able to try the latest Android on specific devices from different OEMs.
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