Samsung has long offered the ability to connect to an external display to power the desktop OS experience for your phone (or tablet). Google is now working on a dex-like desktop mode experience for Android.
With Android 14 QPR3, Google introduced displayport mirror for Pixel 8 and later Pixel 8. You can mirror your phone screen on a display or project content supported like Google Slide. In Android 15 QPR1, Google introduced desktop winding for Pixel Tablet in developer preview.
Those two experiences are now coming with “desktop winding on the secondary display”. Android authority Now this developer option is enabled with the latest Android 16 beta. A pixel (8 Pro) linked to a laptop is pinned and shows Android taskbar with a recent app, as well as launcher access and 3-button navigation to the right.
At the top you see the time and other situation bar icons. If you pull down, you get dual-pillar quick settings and information, such as on today’s tablets and foldables. Apps open in Windows that you can shape, move around, and place side-by-side, physical keyboard and trackpad control. You can continue using the phone when desktop winding is active.
It is unknown when any of it will be launched. The big question is how it fits in Google’s broad view for desktop computing. To use Chromeos more is using more Android under-hood, while Google is clearly adding desktop features to Android that can open the door for proper laptops (or convertibles) running Android’s desktop version.
If the work of creating a desktop Android experience is already being done, it is almost an idea to let the phone run a dex -like experience, it is clearly powerful to run everything with these mobile devices. Some people like and want the dex clearly and want, but the strategy for Google seems to be misleading. People are certainly more familiar with the concept of purchasing a dedicated device (laptop) for their desktop computing requirements. Introduce your phone as your desktop, they require an external performance and keyboard/mouse, or an existing laptop, where the native OS is – whatever reason – whatever – is not enough for their needs.
I wonder whether Google is mainly presenting this underlying desktop mode support in Android for Samsung’s benefit.
Meanwhile, if some party really believes in a future, where the phone gives powers to a laptop, they should basically build a laptop shell with everything – screen, keyboard, trackpad, battery and port – but SOC. I also argue that the relationship between the phone and the display must be wireless to be really comfortable.
