{"id":476941,"date":"2026-03-15T12:43:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/476941\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T12:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:43:17","slug":"androids-new-desktop-windowing-mode-has-changed-how-i-use-my-tablet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/476941\/","title":{"rendered":"Android’s new desktop windowing mode has changed how I use my tablet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"android<\/p>\n

Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Google has been working on bringing desktop-like freeform windows to Android since the days of Android Nougat. The feature dwindled for a while and was recently revived, likely because of Google\u2019s aim to evolve Android into a desktop OS<\/a>, too. As part of that transformation, there\u2019s a new Desktop Mode<\/a> that shows up when you plug your Android phone into a large display, Samsung DeX-style, as well as an effort to bring a similar interface directly to your device, as long as you have a large display in your hands.<\/p>\n

This is what Google is now calling \u201cdesktop windowing,\u201d and after many months in testing under Developer Options, the feature is now available by default on tablets running the stable Android 16 QPR3<\/a>. For now, that only means the Pixel Tablet, but any other tablet that runs or gets updated to Android 16 QPR3 \u2014 more likely, Android 17 \u2014 in the future should have this capability out of the box. I\u2019ve been testing it to see how it works, and honestly, I\u2019m impressed. It\u2019s made me think of using my Pixel Tablet in a different light.<\/p>\n

Do you prefer Android’s split-screen mode or multiple resizable windows?<\/p>\n

41 votes<\/p>\n

Split-screen all the way.<\/p>\n

2%<\/p>\n

I want the freedom of desktop windowing.<\/p>\n

49%<\/p>\n

Each has its use case.<\/p>\n

27%<\/p>\n

I haven’t tried desktop windowing yet to judge.<\/p>\n

15%<\/p>\n

Neither. One fullscreen app at a time.<\/p>\n

7%<\/p>\n

Android\u2019s new desktop windowing is so fluid and fun<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re curious about what desktop windowing feels like on the Pixel Tablet, please watch the demo video above to see how everything works and all the possible gestures and options Google has added. You can snap apps to each side of the screen, resize them, maximize or minimize them, add new apps to your desktop, adjust their size, get existing apps out of or into a desktop, and create multiple desktops and switch between them. It\u2019s all pretty extensive for a feature that just rolled out.<\/p>\n

The first thing I noticed, though, before all of this, is how smooth animations and transitions are. Resizing apps is seamless, though doing it with a finger on a touchscreen is a bit clunkier than what I\u2019m used to when I resize windows on my computer. Snapping apps down into a desktop or back into full screen is smooth, and so is snapping them to the screen\u2019s sides. I love that the bottom taskbar shows all of the currently open apps from ongoing desktops and lets me switch between them with a tap, regardless of which desktop they\u2019re in or whether they\u2019re in the foreground or background. Android switches to the desktop that has the app and brings its window to the foreground.<\/p>\n

\"androidPreview of 3 apps in one desktop\"androidPreview of 4 apps in one desktop<\/p>\n

The small window previews in the app switcher are excellent, too. No matter how wonky or misaligned my floating windows are, in different sizes or aspect ratios, the preview aligns them perfectly next to each other. And I specifically appreciate that if you snap app windows side-by-side, you can still drag the bar between them once to resize them both at the same time. I was afraid that using freeform floating windows like these would mean losing this handy ability to adjust two apps simultaneously, but Google had thought of it, too.<\/p>\n

\"androidTap the round button on the right to start a new desktop\"androidUse the drop-down to close an existing destop<\/p>\n

If gestures aren\u2019t your thing, you can still do most of this with simple taps. Starting a new desktop is easy from the app switcher, and adding new apps is as simple as opening the app picker and choosing the app you want to see in a new window on your desktop. There are familiar minimize, maximize, and close buttons in the corner of every floating app window.<\/p>\n

\"android\"android<\/p>\n

Additionally, the drop-down menu next to the app name in window mode, or in the app switcher, just like the floating top handle in full-screen apps, all open a menu with quick shortcuts to trigger the old split-screen mode, send the app to a desktop, or go full screen. It all feels pretty complete, but there are still some missing bits and pieces.<\/p>\n

Desktops and full-screen apps can coexist<\/p>\n

\"android<\/p>\n

Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Besides all the current options, menus, and gestures, I love that Google has managed to find a good compromise between desktop windowing and the good ol\u2019 way of using full-screen apps on an Android tablet. Both methods co-exist, so you can ignore desktops completely if you don\u2019t like how they work, or switch everything to floating windows in desktops, or mix-and-match. This allows me to bundle multiple apps together if I know I want to use them simultaneously and quickly jump between them, while keeping other apps separate, in their own full-screen modes.<\/p>\n

Desktop windowing\u2019s big benefit over the old way of multitasking is that switching between apps is so incredibly fast. You don\u2019t have to use the app switcher since all running app icons are kept in the bottom taskbar. There isn\u2019t even any long lag or unnecessary animation, like when you swipe to the previous app. You just tap the app icon, and its window pops up.<\/p>\n

\"androidRegular app in full screen\"androidSame app, but maximized on a desktop<\/p>\n

But desktops are not all that useful when you want an app to be maximized (above) or you need two apps side by side (below). Desktops leave an empty bar at the top of the screen and dedicate another top bar to each app\u2019s window, as well as pinning the bottom taskbar to the screen (look at the screenshots on the right). It\u2019s a lot of wasted vertical space on a 10-inch tablet screen. Meanwhile, the usual full-screen app and split-screen mode (screenshots on the left) don\u2019t waste this precious space and show more information and more data. It\u2019s not a contest.<\/p>\n

\"androidAndroid’s default split-screen mode\"androidSplit-screen apps inside a desktop<\/p>\n

If you want to use one or two apps at a time, stick to Android\u2019s regular app window management. If you want more apps and you don\u2019t mind losing some screen estate for the benefit of super-fast app switching, then desktops are a good idea.<\/p>\n

For me, there\u2019s a limit, though. I\u2019m not a huge fan of seeing multiple small windows on my screen; anything more than two or three apps side by side is unusable. I also find small floating windows pointless (right screenshot below). I might as well maximize the Play Store since it\u2019s hiding everything beneath it and making it impossible to use those apps. That is to say, there\u2019s a benefit to desktop windowing, but you can go far into the opposite direction and make your apps unusable.<\/p>\n

\"androidThis is the limit of my multitasking ability\"androidThis is a NO.<\/p>\n

Google has (almost) thought of everything<\/p>\n

\"android<\/p>\n

Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

After using desktop windowing on my Pixel Tablet for a week, I\u2019m more excited about Android\u2019s desktop progression, but I\u2019m still worried this isn\u2019t enough. For one, you can move an app between desktops, or at least I haven\u2019t found how to do it yet (maybe it requires a keyboard shortcut?). If an app is already open in full-screen, you can\u2019t choose which desktop it switches to; it\u2019ll always go into the first desktop. You can\u2019t rearrange desktops either. And for the life of me, I can\u2019t figure out how to open two different Chrome windows in two separate desktops. It kind of works in Chrome Beta and Dev, but not fully, so maybe future Chrome versions will handle it better.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure there are more limitations I haven\u2019t thought of yet, too. I\u2019m still approaching this as a \u201ctablet\u201d interface, but it\u2019s supposed to be a desktop-ready experience, too, and it\u2019s still far from ready in that regard. As a bonus Samsung DeX-like mode embedded in our phones (when using an external display) and tablets (directly on the screen), though, it\u2019s quite awesome. It really made me want to buy a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to test it as a pseudo-laptop setup. I think it would work quite well.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n

\"google\"google<\/a><\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority Google has been working on bringing desktop-like freeform windows to Android since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2596,7175,169805,2306,2594,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-476941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-android","tag-android-16","tag-google-pixel-tablet","tag-mobile","tag-tablets","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}