I do know, I do know: According to nearly each tech publication on the market, this week is all about Magical and Revolutionary Things™ within the iOS universe. But let’s put aside the superlative-slinging wizard-wand for a second — ‘trigger right here within the land o’ Android, we have some severe pondering to do.We’re almost two weeks into the discharge of Google’s Android 11 Beta, y’see, and I am unable to assist however obsess a bit over what this software program suggests may — or a minimum of ought to — come subsequent. (And simply suppose: If Google does in reality transfer ahead with what I’m proposing, iPhone customers can count on to see the identical actual factor added to iOS in one other 5 years! Hey-oh!)At this level, as I specified by a latest publication, Android 11 strikes me as coming down to 3 important themes: smarter privateness, smarter messaging, and smarter controls for the methods we work together with media and units. The privateness half is arguably a very powerful, however the extra I’ve lived with the messaging modifications, the extra I’ve come to understand how significant they’re — and the extra I’ve come to ponder what different enhancements they may pave the best way for in a future launch.The Android messaging mashup: Part IBefore we dive into the long run, let’s do a fast recap of the current: Android 11, in case you have not been paying consideration, has a few noteworthy new communication-related touches — each of which appear comparatively inconsequential on the floor however begin to present their worth as you really use ’em and expertise their impact in the true world.First is a revamp of the Android notification panel through which conversation-related notifications — from any app or service — get separated out into their very own particular part on the prime. Then, for any alert that reveals up in that part, you possibly can press and maintain the notification to simply set its sender as a priority-level particular person.JR Doing so pins that particular person’s notifications to the highest of the Conversations part and causes their profile photograph to look as its personal separate icon inside your standing bar at any time when a notification from them is current. And this is the important thing a part of all of this: Everything seems and acts the identical, it doesn’t matter what app or service is concerned.JR The second new component is the presence of Bubbles, a multitasking system we first heard about again within the Android 10 improvement period and are simply now seeing in motion for the primary time. This half is not completely up and working simply but, as hardly any apps are set as much as help it but — however as soon as builders get on board with the system, it’s going to allow you to faucet a particular icon inside any conversation-related notification to pop that dialog out right into a floating window. The window then stays on prime of no matter else you are doing and could be collapsed down right into a small floating circle for simple ongoing entry.Google So this is how this all comes collectively in observe and why I’m speaking your ear off about it: The impact of those numerous items is that messaging on Android is beginning to really feel extra constant and related — much less like juggling conversations from a dozen totally different apps and extra like interacting with a streamlined communication atmosphere on the working system degree.Especially contemplating what number of totally different messaging platforms most of us need to take care of as of late (to not point out all of the messaging apps Google itself is launching and repositioning each 4 to 6 hours), having a centralized place to handle your whole ongoing threads makes a world of distinction. And between the brand new Conversations part itself and the Bubbles interface coming out of it, chatting actually is changing into extra of an Android expertise, even when a bunch of various apps and platforms are concerned.But maintain the telephone — ‘trigger there is a severe limitation: All of this works solely while you’re coping with incoming conversations which are already underway — ones for which notifications are already current. When you wish to begin a brand new dialog with somebody, you continue to have to consider which service you employ to speak to that particular person after which do the basic app-hopping dance.It’s a sensible little bit of streamlining, in different phrases, but it surely’s solely half the image — and particularly while you see how closely Google is emphasizing the concept Android 11 is supposed to make the working system extra “people-centric, not platform-centric,” placing “people at the heart of the experience for Android” and “reimagin[ing] the way we have conversations on our phones,” it is arduous to not really feel like that is solely the start.And it is arduous to not hope Android 12 will end what Android 11’s begun.The subsequent section of Android messagingSo this is what that is all constructing as much as: With Android 11 making replying to and interacting with current conversations a constant, platform-agnostic expertise, Android 12 wants to choose up the place that leaves off and do the identical factor for brand new conversations.And for a mannequin of what that would appear like, we have to look no additional than a number of years again in smartphone historical past — to an organization simply outdoors of Google’s orbit.Back when Microsoft was nonetheless growing its personal smartphone working system (and never but increase a enterprise inside Google’s Android world), its Windows Phone software program had an intriguing component — a messaging hub that, yup, introduced totally different messaging platforms collectively right into a single streamlined expertise.The Windows Phone messaging hub “blurred the lines” between totally different communication platforms, as one reviewer put it on the time — letting you “focus on the people rather than having to choose” a particular service after which change over to that app. It wasn’t good and it definitely had its share of limitations, however the thought behind it was strong — and nearly a spot-on complement to what Google’s giving us proper now.Imagine a system-level Android app that collected contact information from quite a lot of totally different platforms and pulled ’em right into a single place, then allow you to go to that one hub to provoke conversations with folks throughout any of the related companies. Combine that with the Conversations part and Bubbles system Android 11 brings into the equation, and also you’d have a whole system for doing precisely what Google’s describing — for making Android “people-centric, not platform-centric,” for placing “people at the heart of the experience for Android,” and for “reimagin[ing] the way we have conversations on our phones.”It would end what Android 11 began, and it’d give Android an enormous leg up on that different cellular working system on the subject of communication. (Well, it’d give it that leg up for a number of years, anyway, till Apple emulated the very same factor in 2026 and touted it as a “revolutionary new innovation.”)The humorous factor is that Google really nearly did this 9 years in the past — or began to consider it, a minimum of. Remember this? With 2011’s Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich launch, Google debuted a extremely touted new system for “integrat[ing] rich social communication and sharing touchpoints across the system, making it easy to talk, email, text, and share.”As Google put it on the time:
Throughout the system, a person’s social teams, profiles, and contacts are linked collectively and built-in for simple accessibility. At the middle is a brand new People app that gives richer profile info, together with a big profile image, telephone numbers, addresses and accounts, standing updates, occasions, stream objects, and a brand new button for connecting on built-in social networks.
That People app by no means progressed to the purpose of being a real multiplatform messaging hub — and Google, being Google, quietly phased it out with out rationalization a number of years after its splashy debut. The core thought was there, although; it simply by no means had the possibility to evolve and switch into one thing helpful.GoogleWith that very same “people-centric” strategy coming again round now with Android 11, it looks as if the proper alternative to revive the People app idea and switch Android into a real people-centric, platform-combining working system — one the place communication is an OS-level function as an alternative of a mishmosh of overlapping apps. It’d be a technical problem to make occur, I’m certain, and doubtless a little bit of logistical nightmare. If Google have been capable of pull it off, although, it might be an unimaginable feat and a strong productiveness benefit.Android 11 takes step one in remodeling a disparate forest of app-controlled actions right into a related and constant a part of the Android expertise. Now Google simply wants to finish that thought and fill in the remainder of the image. And from Microsoft’s work with Windows Phone to Google’s personal unfinished concepts with Android, it does not need to look far to seek out the precise proper type of inspiration.Sign up for my weekly publication to get extra sensible ideas, private suggestions, and plain-English perspective on the information that issues.[Android Intelligence videos at Computerworld]
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