Android is an open-source mobile operating system mainly designed for smartphones and tablets. Officially owned by Google, Android was commercially released in September 2008. We are all aware that Android is the most used operating system around the globe. It is used by several smartphone companies and its simple interface makes it more user-friendly. Read more to know how to update the Android operating system on your device.
7 Advantages of Using Android that You Must Know About!
Before we actually learn how to update Android OS on your smartphone, it’s good to know more about Android and its advantages. Though there are other operating systems, like iOS, that also rules the market, Android still has the biggest market share. Android is open source and powers the highest number of smartphones across the world. Let’s have a look at the various advantages of using Android smartphones:
1. Variety
Android users get more variety as most smartphone brands worldwide use Android as the operating system on their devices. Also, Android is an operating system that is also available on smartphone devices with various configurations available a variety of price options ranging from low to high. Therefore, customers can easily opt for an Android device that suits both their budget and requirements.
2. Universal chargers
The second most important advantage of using Android is that most Android devices have a standardized Micro USB port for charging. Whereas, it isn’t the case with Apple smartphones as their new Lightning connector doesn’t work with devices manufactured by companies other than Apple.
3. Better hardware
A lot of Android smartphones come with a better and faster processor and RAM along with options like fast charging and bigger screen resolution. Thus, Android smartphones become quite competitive against iPhones.
4. Access to the best widgets
Widgets or self-contained programs are superb features offered by Android as these provide more flexibility and greater functionality to Android smartphones. This is one of the best things about Android. Battery Widget Reborn and Circle Launcher are two of the many Android widgets that help to enhance the overall user experience.
5. More app choices
The Google Play Store is home to more than 2.5 million applications and more than 90% of these applications are available for free. You can download and install any of these apps on your Android smartphone. Not only from the play store, but Android OS also allows you to download applications even from platforms other than the Play Store. You can download apps from platforms like Amazon, Galaxy Store, 9Apss app directory, etc.
6. Use custom keyboards
The android operating system allows its users to switch between different types of keyboards like Standard Keyboard, One-handed keyboard, and Floating Keyboard. However, in the case of iOS devices, you don’t get such choices.
7. Open-Source
Since its open-source, Android allows software developers to work and make changes to it’s source code without any restrictions. This lets Android smartphone manufacturing companies like Samsung, Mi, Realme make modifications to the OS and offer a unique experience to their users while using the same Android OS.
How to Update to the Latest Android Version
If you receive a notification regarding the Android OS update on your device, you can update to the latest version by following these simple steps:
- Step 1 – First make sure you connect your phone to a stable internet connection
- Step 2 – Then, go to Settings of your device
- Step 3 – Now, choose ‘Software Update’
- Step 4 – If it shows an update, you will see the option ‘Download and Install.’ Tap on it
- Step 5 – Now tap on the Update button, and your update will begin.
The latest Android version that is available once you update is Android 11. It comes with some super cool features. Have a look at the new feature inclusions available on Android 11.
Latest Feature Updates on Android 11
Android 11 has come up with new features along with APIs for developers. Let’s take a look at these.
1. Media Controls
In Android 11, media controls are visible near quick settings. Sessions from various apps are aligned in a carousel which allows local streaming and remote streaming like the ones on external devices as well as previous sessions too.
Users are allowed to restart the previous sessions without starting the application.
2. Conversations
There have been a lot of improvements in Conversations for Android devices. Conversations are bidirectional and real-time between more than two people and now you can interact with different options available.
3. Screens
It offers different APIs which support waterfall displays that appear near the edge of the device.
It also offers hinge-based screen configurations on various apps for determining the angle of the hinge by offering a new sensor and a new SensorEvent that enables monitoring the hinge angle. It also provides the measurement between the two main parts of the device and these measurements can be used to do granular animations.
4. Privacy
Android 11 has come up with better and enhanced privacy features for its users.
5. Security
In order to make your application data safer, Android 11 has improved biometric authentication to a great extent.
6. Performance & Quality
- Wireless Debugging – Android 11 uses Android Debug Bridge for debugging the application wirelessly from the workstation. For example, the user can deploy the debuggable app to several remote devices without using any USB while resisting any connection errors.
- ADB Incremental APK installation – This facilitates faster installation of large APKs on any device whenever there is any change made to the application. adb install uses this feature if it is supported by the device.
- Error Detection with the native memory allocator – with GWP-ASan is a native memory allocator that helps in searching heap-buffer-overflow and use-after-free bugs. Besides these, Android 11 offers numerous other features when it comes to its performance.
Conclusion
With an easy-to-use interface, Android has captured most of the market and will continue to do so in the future. We hope you found this article helpful as now you know how to update to its latest version along with the feature updates of Android 11.