Summary
For years, if you’ve wanted to plug your Android phone into a monitor and get something that felt remotely like a desktop, your only option has essentially been Samsung DeX. It offers a proper multi-window interface, a taskbar, and the ability to use your phone like a PC. Meanwhile, Android’s offering for other devices has been extremely lacking. That appears to be changing.
Last year, Google finally allowed Pixel phones tomirror their displays to external screens. Then, earlier this year, Google was working on adeveloper option for desktop mode. Now, deep dives into the Android code are revealing Google’s ambitions for a more robust desktop environment, currently dubbed “Desktop View.” This isn’t just a tweaked interface for tablets; it’s designed to work when you connect your phone to an external display, giving you a layout that’s far more conducive to getting work done with a keyboard and mouse.
“Desktop View” includes features such as a persistent taskbar, much like you’d find on Windows or ChromeOS. This bar will reportedly give you quick access to your pinned apps and show your recently used ones, making switching between tasks much smoother than the standard Android recent apps view. More importantly, the system is being built to handle multiple apps running in resizable, freeform windows. You can apparently also drag and drop content between windows if the apps support it. This is crucial for getting that true PC-like multitasking experience.
While this early desktop mode is showing significant progress, it’s important to temper expectations slightly. First, it’s still clearly a work in progress, tucked away in developer options in current beta builds. Right now, it’s essentially a modified version of Android’s windowing mode that you may currently see on tablets and foldables. So, it’s unlikely that we’ll see this as a finished product inAndroid 16.
However, the fact that Google is actively developing these features and building upon the basic windowing capabilities introduced in earlier Android versions is a good sign. Google has also been working on bringingexternal display tools to Android–things like the ability to rearrange displays and move a mouse between displays. It feels like Google is finally ready to offer an alternative to DeX for those who don’t want a Samsung phone, turning your phone into a real pocket computer.
