A state of "platform stability" was planned for July 2020, and the final release occurred on September 8, 2020.

[16] On May 6, Google released an unexpected Developer Preview 4, as they pushed the whole roadmap for Android 11 forward a month, setting the date for the first beta for June 3, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[18] Following the George Floyd protests, Google announced that the release of the first Android 11 beta would be postponed.

[5][6] Android 11 introduces "conversations" notifications; they are designed for chat and messaging, and can be presented in pop-up overlays known as "bubbles" when supported by apps.

Conversations can also be marked as "priority" to give them greater prominence (pushing them to the top of notifications, and allowing them to bypass do not disturb mode).

[27] Media controls are displayed as part of the quick settings area and no longer as a persistent notification,[24] and can be swiped sideways to access those for other apps.

[24] Android 11 contains various APIs designed for detecting the presence of 5G network connectivity in order to provide enhanced in-app experiences.

[24][34][35][36] Apps targeting Android 11 are only allowed to access files in external storage that they have created themselves ("scoped storage"), preferably contained within an app-specific directory, and audio, image, and video files contained within the Music, Pictures, or Videos directories.