Instead of waiting on hold, listening to the same boring music on loop, Google is bringing a new feature to Assistant, and it's debuting with the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5.
Called Hold For Me, Google Assistant's new trick shows a prompt on the screen letting you know you can go about doing whatever it is you want to do, and your phone will alert you when someone finally answers.
In order for the feature to work, your phone will need to have vibrate or sound turned off, and you'll have to have called a toll-free number. The in-call screen will have a Hold for me button that you can press when you're placed on hold.
Tap Start, and then a screen will show up reminding you not to hang up. You can't listen to music or use your phone to play a video.
When you're taken off hold, your phone will let you know "Someone's waiting to talk to you" so you can then resume the call.
I can't wait to get a Pixel 5 in my hands to try this out. Normally I place the call on speaker and just listen to music in the background, but even then, that gets annoying. If I can offload a mental task like waiting for someone to answer the phone, I'm all for it.
New message notifications get the limelight
After installing Android 11, you'll notice that alerts from all of your messaging apps, like Google Messages, have a dedicated "Conversations" section in your notification tray.
The change makes it easier to find the alerts you likely care about most, but if you receive a lot of messages, even this section can get messy.
Instead of letting Google sort your new alerts on its own, long-press the conversation you want to follow closely and select Priority. Doing this will move new messages in that thread to the top of all of your conversation alerts, turn on Bubbles (more on that below), and use the contact's avatar as the alert icon in the notification tray and on the lock screen.
Being able to glance at the notification tray and see a profile icon, instead of the standard text alert that doesn't offer any really valuable information, is a nice touch.
Messaging Bubbles for your friends look like they'll be useful
Remember Bubbles? This feature was supposed to be part of Android 10, but Google pulled it at the last minute. It made the cut for Android 11.
Bubbles are similar to Facebook Messenger's "chat heads" feature. When activated, a small avatar -- or Bubble -- shows up on your screen and is visible no matter what app you're using. Tap on the avatar and it will open a small window for you to read and send new messages in that thread, without fully opening the app. You can drag the Bubble around your screen, or drag it to the bottom of the screen to delete it.
In order to use Bubbles for a conversation, tap on the small Bubbles icon in the bottom-right corner of the notification. Tapping on it will immediately enable Bubbles for that thread. Alternatively, you can mark a conversation as a priority to always use Bubbles for that contact. ?