To help with multitasking, Google is testing a new feature for Android tablets that will allow you to flexibly rearrange and resize apps on your screen. Apps that enable it allow you to run several instances of the "desktop windowing" functionality, which is currently available as a developer preview.
Android tablets currently come pre-installed with full-screen apps. Apps that are enabled for the new mode will show up in a window with buttons to move, maximize, and close them. Your open apps are also displayed in a taskbar at the bottom of the screen.
It seems similar to the Stage Manager feature on the iPad, which allows you to move and resize windows on your screen, or it could be any desktop operating system. As part of its DeX experience, Samsung has been providing Android apps on Galaxy phones and tablets with desktop-like window management for years.
You may activate the feature by tapping and holding the window handle located at the top of an app's screen once it's made available to all users. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Windows, Command, or Search + Ctrl + Down to enter desktop mode if a keyboard is connected. (You can escape the mode by dragging a window to the top of your screen or by closing all of your open programs.)
Apps that are locked to portrait orientation can still be resized, according to Google, which could have odd visual effects if some apps aren't optimized. Google intends to fix this in a later release, though, by scaling non-resizable apps' user interfaces without changing their aspect ratios. For the time being, users with the most recent Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2 for Pixel Tablets can access the developer preview. It is currently unknown when the feature will be available to all users or whether it will work with the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
No comments