Google Confirms Next Operating System Is Android 11, Mentions OS' Latest Features

Google officially released last month its latest operating system, Android 10. The new OS is currently limited to a particular range of smartphone devices. It appears that the search engine giant is already positioning its next operating system (OS) in the extremely competitive world of mobile phones and devices industry with the confirmation of its next operating system, the Android 11.

Google recently shared the full conference schedule of the 2019 Android Dev Summit, which is scheduled to kick off later this month. Interestingly, an official app for the upcoming event makes the first official reference to the next Android operating system, which it calls, Android 11. One of the two sessions on the two-day conference to be held in Mountain View is dubbed “Preparing for Scoped Storage in Android 11.”

After the recent switch to the naming scheme in the last part of August and the launch of Android 10 in September, this is the first and official sign of the next major release. The numbering and naming are not really surprising; however, it reveals how the search engine giant will adopt the name Android 11 right out of the bag instead of using a codename when it discusses the operating system with the developers and with the public pre-launch.

Many tech enthusiasts already spotted several references to Android R earlier with Google previously confirming that internal codenames will stay in use at the development cycle of the operating systems. In the past, we were introduced to Google’s operating systems with codenames like Android Q for Android 10, Android P for Android 9, and so on. But, when Android 10 was launched, the search engine giant promised to move forward with a numerical-based system instead of using the alphabetical one, thus Android 11.

Compared to Android 10, which was confirmed just a few weeks before its official release, Android 11 is a different case considering that we already know its name before its predecessor was made available to all Android devices. In regards to the term Scoped Storage seen on the title of the upcoming event, the term refers to a process of organizing what files and information apps can gain access to. The intention is to improve security and enhance app writing and reading.

It can be recalled that this feature was first mentioned in Android 10; however, was pushed back because of several complaints from developers on how it was implemented. Interestingly, this might be one of the features of the next Google operating system, Android 11.