Android 11 lets you dismiss persistent notifications (Update: Not anymore)

Update: May 6, 2020: With the release of the fourth Android 11 developer preview, Google removed the ability to dismiss all notifications, including the persistent ones. Don’t fret, though! This seems like one of those changes that might reappear in the final Android 11 release.

Check out what’s new in Android 11 Developer Preview 4 right here.

Original article: April 23, 2020: As Google releases more Android 11 developer previews, we get a better idea of what we can expect from the final release. Android 11 Developer Preview 3 just dropped today, and one of the new features lets users dismiss every type of notification, even ones that you currently cannot in Android 10.

As demonstrated in the video above, you can even dismiss persistent notifications in Android 11. This includes notifications that are sometimes used to allow apps to run in the background.

Read also: New Android 11 DP3 multitasking gesture lets you undo cleared apps

If the notification you dismiss is one of these persistent notifications, it will appear in a new “Apps active in the background” section in the history panel that was introduced in Android DP2.

You can easily restore any of these dismissed notifications by simply tapping on them. This brings the notification back to the regular panel and will continue functioning as you would expect.

This is a really nice touch, especially when you want to remove notifications that are particularly annoying. Let’s just hope it makes it into the final Android 11 release.