With Android 11, Google moved the media controls below the quick settings toggles in the notification drop-down menu. This allowed for more room for other app notifications in the notifications bar.
Google pushed several updates that improved the design and functionality of the new media controls in quick settings toggles. In fact, the ability to swipe and clear media controls were also added.
However, it did not expunge the media controls. Apparently, it hid them by dropping them lower. Finally, after the December patch and Feature Drop, users will be able to completely dismiss the Android 11 media controls.
This will come in handy in situations where you are done with listening to music and want to dismiss the music player completely. To dismiss the media controls, all you need to do is tap and hold the media card of any app, then choose Dismiss.
Once you perform the above steps, the playback will stop and the controls will go away. This will make your notification menu clean and it works on a per-app basis. Now, by per-app basis, we mean that if you dismiss YouTube, you can still keep Spotify running.
You can make those controls disappear completely each time you stop playing media content
With the latest December patch and Feature Drop, you can dismiss the Android 11 media controls manually, or you can also set it to disappear completely each time you stop playing media.
In order to that, you need to tap the Settings button and turn off Media player in Quick Settings. What this will do is that it will make sure the media notification goes away as soon as possible.
One important alternative to this, as noted by Android Police, is that it could have much better if Google allowed for pinning your favorite music player below the Quick Settings toggle and never see it go away.
It would mean that you have easy access to your favorite music player all the time. Moreover, you could also control the media playback simply from the notification bar.
Android Police highlighted some cases where the media controls sometimes disappear without any reason. It happened even during mid-playback for some, or as soon as the system app memory is cleared.
Well, this is not the one thing that the December 2020 patch and Feature Drop brought in for the Pixel phones. It brought in a new HDR filter/effect for the Google Photos app, Extreme Battery Saver mode, Adaptive Sound, etc.
Additionally, it also brought 217 new emojis for Pixel phones as a part of Emoji 13.1. Apparently, Emoji 13.1 was scheduled for broader release in 2021.
