Android 11 vs. Apple iOS: Four Ways How These Two Just Turned up the Game

By Tiziana Celine Oct 11 2020, 06:28 AM EDT

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Android users will see a lot of new functionality that transforms how they use their phones soon. Google will roll out Android 11 handsets across the globe soon. For years, Apple's iOS has delivered some of them. However, other fresh tricks placed the iPhone ahead of Google.

Android 11 introduces several significant updates. The developers intended to make communications smoother, just as Apple prepares to launch the expected iPhone 12 with revamped iOS 14 on October 13.

Here's a peek at four of the most useful and exciting changes arriving in 2020 for Android 11 phones.

Google Assistant works for third-party software

Android users have been able to open their inbox for years, send a text and monitor a whole litany of behavior using Google Assistant on their mobile.

Still, the functionality was restricted to applications and utilities for Android. On the other side, Apple's Siri has been able to monitor third-party applications for a while now.

Google, though, has evened it out. The business recently revealed collaborations with 30 third-party users, including Walmart, Mint, Spotify, Etsy, and Discord, and says in the coming weeks and months it plans to include more.

Verified Calls lets you know who's calling

You want to wonder who's calling when the phone rings out of the blue and why. Even if you don't know the number, the Android app you use to make and accept calls has received several updates to help you find it out, much as iPhones should do.

Google has now launched its Checked Calls function. It authorizes some firms and gives you the business name, logo, justification for calling and a verification icon. They added in addition to filtering spam, which operates through silencing calls from numbers Google has defined as potentially fraudulent.

There is a related application for text messages named Checked SMS.

Google Pair introduces video voicemails, screen sharing

Via screen sharing and video voicemails with captions, people who depend on Google Duo's mobile-only video calling service to chat with family and friends now have a few different ways to link - two things Apple's FaceTime also lacks.

Tap the three dots in the bottom right corner to share your phone during a video chat, then tap Phone Share. If you want to exchange classified details on the call, a pop-up may inquire. To agree, tap Start Now.

To leave a video message, either wait for the call to go unanswered for 60 seconds or, when it's still ringing, click Leave a video message. Follow the instructions onscreen, then tap Send. Captions would immediately be inserted.

The Action Blocks app converts pictures into speech

Images and icons are used with the current Action Blocks app to express brief sentences. Google terms it an "artificial voice for persons with cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, autism, aphasia, and other difficulties linked to speech."

Download it from the Google Play app store to try Action Lines. (Apple has related applications in its App Store, but none made by Apple, for the record.)