Scrolling screenshots, elongated screenshots, or other synonyms are one of those things that take eons in layers of customization but not on pure Android. So much so that at one point Google gave it up as impossible, and then changed its mind. They were expected to arrive on Android 11, but ultimately it will not be so.
In previous Developer Preview, we were even able to see a button for taking long screenshots, although it never worked. Now Google has confirmed in an AMA on Reddit that the function is not ready and will not be for the launch of Android 11.
Slowly but surely
After giving it up as impossible, in the first Developer Preview of Android 11 we were surprised to find a button that would allow us to create these types of screenshots. Dave Burkey, vice president of engineering for Android, confirmed in his Google account that displacement catches would be arriving soon, because he keeps his promises.
Soon. I keep my promises :)
– Dave Burke (@davey_burke) February 19, 2020
This was in February of this year, before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted virtually all plans for the year. The team explained today in an AMA on reddit that have preferred to delay the elongated screenshots to a future version of Android.
The objective is to create a universal capture system with the highest possible compatibility instead of a quick fix that bugs and only works on a few. As Dan Sandler explained, there has been no time to implement it in Android 11 and we will see it in a future version of Android:
We are still working on it, but the cut did not pass for R.
Instead of making a fix that works for one or two applications by hand on a specific device, our goal on the platform team is to build the function so that any application supports it, whether they use a standard RecyclerView or have their own OpenGL-accelerated proprietary scrolling system. We investigated this throughout the R timeline, involving people from the Window Management and System UI teams; You will see this capture framework take shape in the AOSP source code.
In the end, as with any Android release (and especially this unusual year) we had to make tough decisions about where to focus our limited resources. While this is a cool feature that we are still excited about, we decided not to rush it. Look it up in a future version of the API.
Several layers of customization have their own version of the screenshots and it is true that they do not always work correctly. It remains to be seen how the polished version of Android is in a future version. Meanwhile, if you have pure Android, you can always use third party applications to do this kind of capture, like LongScreenshot.
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