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When most people think of Android’s desktop mode, they tend to think of Samsung’s DeX or Motorola’s Ready for Platform. In fact, these two are among the most advanced custom implementations in existence today. However, a lesser known fact is that Google’s AOSP has a desktop mode. It was initially released in a very bare bones state along with Android 10 to allow developers to test their apps in multi-display scenarios.
Since then, desktop mode has slowly but steadily improved, and now it can easily handle side-by-side mode, which displays two apps on the screen. You can open more apps at the same time using a so-called freeform multi-window experience, but there are a number of caveats.
Apparently, Google is working on a multi-window Android desktop experience and has already made some progress. Android Authority discovered some interesting additions by tinkering with developer flags in the latest Android 14 QPR3 2.1 beta build.
See the new multi-window experience for yourself in the video. But basically, we’ve added a new title bar that when you tap the small handle at the top of a full-screen app, a small menu appears. The menu includes options for full-screen mode, split-screen mode, or freeform mode. Freeform mode allows you to freely drag and resize windows. The Snap to Edge feature allows you to snap windows to the left or right half of the screen. You can also skip the entire menu and go directly from a full-screen app to a freeform window by simply holding and dragging the new handle above the full-screen app. In particular, there are still no keyboard shortcuts for positioning or snapping windows. There’s also no proper desktop launcher.
These major productivity and usability improvements are expected to arrive with Android 15. Perhaps Google could also sell these devices as part of the Pixel 9 experience once they launch later this fall. After all, the tech giant recently enabled display output on the Pixel 8 series, seemingly showing renewed interest in the feature.
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