For years, in the event you’ve wished to plug your Android telephone right into a monitor and get one thing that felt remotely like a desktop, your solely possibility has primarily been Samsung DeX. It provides a correct multi-window interface, a taskbar, and the power to make use of your telephone like a PC. In the meantime, Android’s providing for different gadgets has been extraordinarily missing. That seems to be altering.

Final 12 months, Google lastly allowed Pixel telephones to mirror their displays to external screens. Then, earlier this 12 months, Google was engaged on a developer option for desktop mode. Now, deep dives into the Android code are revealing Google’s ambitions for a extra sturdy desktop atmosphere, at the moment dubbed “Desktop View.” This is not only a tweaked interface for tablets; it is designed to work while you join your telephone to an exterior show, providing you with a structure that is way more conducive to getting work accomplished with a keyboard and mouse.

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“Desktop View” consists of options similar to a persistent taskbar, very similar to you’d discover on Home windows or ChromeOS. This bar will reportedly provide you with fast entry to your pinned apps and present your lately used ones, making switching between duties a lot smoother than the usual Android latest apps view. Extra importantly, the system is being constructed to deal with a number of apps operating in resizable, freeform home windows. You may apparently additionally drag and drop content material between home windows if the apps help it. That is essential for getting that true PC-like multitasking expertise.

Whereas this early desktop mode is displaying vital progress, it is essential to mood expectations barely. First, it is nonetheless clearly a piece in progress, tucked away in developer choices in present beta builds. Proper now, it is primarily a modified model of Android’s windowing mode which you could at the moment see on tablets and foldables. So, it’s unlikely that we’ll see this as a completed product in Android 16.

Nonetheless, the truth that Google is actively creating these options and constructing upon the fundamental windowing capabilities launched in earlier Android variations is an effective signal. Google has additionally been engaged on bringing external display tools to Android–issues like the power to rearrange shows and transfer a mouse between shows. It looks like Google is lastly prepared to supply a substitute for DeX for individuals who don’t desire a Samsung telephone, turning your telephone into an actual pocket laptop.

Supply: Android Authority

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