What you need to know
- An Android 11 UI test may shift the position of music controls in the operating system.
- In the UI test the music controls now move up to the quick settings menu where they expand and contract as needed.
- It's a small UI test that could always be shelved.
Unlike iOS, Google has always had music controls in the notifications center alongside your messages, social alerts, etc. While this made finding music controls quite easy, it also meant that sometimes notifications could push media controls all the way down and out of sight.
With Android 11, there's a very, very slight possibility that that may change. The team over at XDA has spotted a new feature Google's built into the upcoming operating system.
In essence, the music controls have migrated out of the notification center to the quick settings menu, sitting alongside other controls like rotation lock and Wi-FI.
In order to accommodate the music player, the Quick Settings panel will expand from one to two rows and will display the Quick Settings toggles on one side, while the music player will take up the other side.Opening the Quick Settings panel completely by swiping down once again will move the music player to the bottom of the panel, with all the toggles right above it. In a bid to accommodate the music player, the Quick Settings panel will take up more space than it does currently
From XDA's screenshot, the change does look more than a little unfinished and out of place that it seems likely, this is just a test. Google has previewed features like screen recording and themes in Beta builds of Android before rolling them out in the next big update.
So while this could still come with Android 11, it's much more likely to do so in Android 12.
Android 11: Everything you need to know!
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