Quickly you might be able to use Google’s Android working system extra like a desktop working system… at the very least on tablets or different units with giant screens.
Google has launched a developer preview of a brand new “desktop windowing” characteristic that lets customers view a number of apps directly by operating every app in a window that may be resized and repositioned anyplace on the show. Up to now the characteristic is just obtainable on a Google Pixel Pill operating Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2, however Google is encouraging developers to prepare their apps to help the characteristic, suggesting it may roll out extra broadly sooner or later.
Android is an working system that was initially developed for smartphones with small screens, so it’s unsurprising that when it first launched Android solely supported viewing one app at a time, with every app operating in a full-screen view.
That began to alter when Android 7.0 was released in 2016. One of many key new options in that launch was a fundamental multi-window characteristic that allowed customers to see two apps in side-by-side home windows (or stacked one atop the opposite in portrait orientation).
However customers nonetheless didn’t have the identical sort of flexibility they get from desktop working programs. So some third-party developer stepped in and developed their very own desktop-style consumer interfaces for Android.
Some Android-based desktop working programs, like RemixOS, have fallen by the wayside. Others, like Bliss OS are nonetheless going. And corporations together with Samsung and Motorola have constructed their very own multi-window modes that will let you use Android extra like a desktop working system when utilizing a pill or when connecting a smartphone to an exterior show. Google has even constructed multi-window help for Android apps into ChromeOS… however thus far the corporate’s customary Android working system has solely had restricted, experimental help for “freeform” window administration.
Now it seems to be like Google is getting severe about multi-window help for Android units with bigger screens.
Along with letting you see a number of apps directly, this new viewing mode helps a number of cases of a single app, permitting you to see two internet pages in separate browser home windows, for instance, or to create a brand new doc whereas persevering with to have a look at an current one.
The brand new mode will let customers view a number of apps side-by-side, with one app overlapping one other, or in some other manner that customers handle to suit their apps on a display screen. There’s a taskbar on the underside of the display screen that may present apps {that a} consumer has pinned, in addition to a button that may be tapped to open the total app drawer. And there’s a bar on the prime of every window that features icons for closing or maximizing home windows, together with different capabilities {that a} developer can add.
Android continues to be at the beginning designed to run apps in full display screen, and that’s how apps will open when first launched. However on units that help desktop windowing, customers will have the ability to press and maintain a bar on the prime of a full-screen app window after which drag the app towards the middle of the display screen in order that it runs in a smaller window that may be resized or moved. On units with keyboards, you too can change to desktop windowing by urgent Ctrl+Down+a “meta” key (Search key on Chromebooks, Command on MacBooks, or Home windows key on Home windows programs).
You will discover extra particulars in an article at the Android Developers Blog.
