Soon you may be able to use Google’s Android operating system more like a desktop operating system… at least on tablets or other devices with large screens.
Google has released a developer preview of a new “desktop windowing” feature that lets users view multiple apps at once by running each app in a window that can be resized and repositioned anywhere on the display. So far the feature is only available on a Google Pixel Tablet running Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2, but Google is encouraging developers to prepare their apps to support the feature, suggesting it could roll out more widely in the future.
Android is an operating system that was originally developed for smartphones with small screens, so it’s unsurprising that when it first launched Android only supported viewing one app at a time, with each app running in a full-screen view.
That started to change when Android 7.0 was released in 2016. One of the key new features in that release was a basic multi-window feature that allowed users to see two apps in side-by-side windows (or stacked one atop the other in portrait orientation).
But users still didn’t have the same kind of flexibility they get from desktop operating systems. So some third-party developer stepped in and developed their own desktop-style user interfaces for Android.
Some Android-based desktop operating systems, like RemixOS, have fallen by the wayside. Others, like Bliss OS are still going. And companies including Samsung and Motorola have built their own multi-window modes that allow you to use Android more like a desktop operating system when using a tablet or when connecting a smartphone to an external display. Google has even built multi-window support for Android apps into ChromeOS… but so far the company’s standard Android operating system has only had limited, experimental support for “freeform” window management.
Now it looks like Microsoft is getting serious about multi-window support for Android devices with larger screens.
In addition to letting you see multiple apps at once, this new viewing mode supports multiple instances of a single app, allowing you to see two web pages in separate browser windows, for example, or to create a new document while continuing to look at an existing one.
The new mode will let users view multiple apps side-by-side, with one app overlapping another, or in any other way that users manage to fit their apps on a screen. There’s a taskbar on the bottom of the screen that will show apps that a user has pinned, as well as a button that can be tapped to open the full app drawer. And there’s a bar at the top of each window that includes icons for closing or maximizing windows, along with other functions that a developer can add.
Android is still first and foremost designed to run apps in full screen, and that’s how apps will open when first launched. But on devices that support desktop windowing, users will be able to press and hold a bar at the top of a full-screen app window and then drag the app toward the center of the screen so that it runs in a smaller window that can be resized or moved. On devices with keyboards, you can also switch to desktop windowing by pressing Ctrl+Down+a “meta” key (Search key on Chromebooks, Command on MacBooks, or Windows key on Windows systems).
You can find more details in an article at the Android Developers Blog.