Google just released the first developer preview of Android 11 and it looks to be reviving the native screen recording feature that first showed up in Android 10.
Worth noting is that the feature was initially part of the Android 10 previews, and it was later disabled by Google. So that’s worth keeping in mind here as this is the first preview and Google could end up doing the same thing down the line.
For now though, it’s present and something that users can interact with if they have the preview installed. There’s also some other cool features that the release introduces.
The screen recording feature in Android 11 has its own quick tile
Need fast access to the feature for something you’re doing or about to do on your device? Not a problem with Android 11.
Google implemented a quick tile for it so you can access it from the notification panel. And since the quick tiles are customizable you organize them to have screen recording in the first few so you can see it without having to expand the whole panel.
Upon tapping on the feature to activate it, you’ll be presented with a prompt that says the feature will have access to all of the screen’s visible information. The prompt also includes the options for starting or cancelling the recording.
Pause or cancel from the notification panel
Much like with songs if you’re playing music on your device, the screen recording feature has a persistent notification. This means it’ll stay there until you stop using it.
While it’s persistent you have access to a couple of functions, such as pausing the recording at any time if you need to. You can also resume the recording, cancel it, or stop it.
Naturally you can just tap the quick tile again as well. Whichever feels more natural or more convenient is likely to be the method that gets more use. Right now there’s no guarantee this feature will stick around and be available in the final release build.
In fact there’s no guarantee it’ll stick around for future previews or betas either. But considering Google tried to launch this feature last year and had to pull it due to complications, presumably the issues have been fixed and Google will decide to keep it.
In either case, there are apps that allow you to use screen recording. So even if it wasn’t available natively you can simply install something that enables the functionality anyway.
