Posted by Francesco Romano – Developer Relations Engineer on Android, and Fahd Imtiaz – Product Supervisor, Android Developer
To empower pill customers to get extra completed, we’re enhancing freeform windowing, permitting them to run a number of apps concurrently and resize home windows for optimum multitasking. Right this moment, we’re excited to share that desktop windowing on Android tablets is obtainable in developer preview.
For app builders, the idea of Android apps operating in freeform home windows has already existed with options like Samsung DeX and ChromeOS. Updating your apps to help adaptive layouts, extra strong multitasking, and adaptive inputs will guarantee your apps work effectively on massive screens throughout the Android ecosystem.
Let’s discover the way to optimize your apps for desktop windowing and ship the optimum expertise to customers.
What’s desktop windowing?
Desktop windowing permits customers to run a number of apps concurrently and resize app home windows, providing a extra versatile and desktop-like expertise. This, together with a refreshed System UI and new APIs, permits customers to be much more productive and creates a extra seamless, desktop-like expertise on tablets.
In Determine 1, you possibly can see the anatomy of the display with desktop windowing enabled. Issues to make be aware of:
- Customers can run a number of apps side-by-side, concurrently
- Taskbar is mounted and exhibits the operating apps, customers can pin apps for fast entry
- New header bar with window controls on the prime of every window which apps can customise
How can customers invoke desktop windowing?
By default, apps open in full display on Android tablets. To run the apps as a desktop window on Pixel Pill, press and maintain the window deal with on the prime in the course of the display and drag it throughout the UI, as seen in Determine 2.
As soon as you might be within the desktop area, all future apps can be launched as desktop home windows as effectively.
You may as well invoke desktop windowing from the menu that exhibits up under the window deal with whenever you faucet/click on on it or use the keyboard shortcut meta key (Home windows, Command, or Search) + Ctrl + Down.
You possibly can exit desktop windowing and show an app as full display by closing all energetic home windows or by grabbing the window deal with on the prime of the window and dragging the app to the highest of the display. You may as well use the meta + H keyboard shortcut to run apps as full display once more.
To return to the desktop, transfer a full display app to the desktop area through the use of the strategies talked about above, or just faucet on the desktop area tile within the Recents display.
What does this imply for app builders?
Desktop windowing on Android tablets creates new alternatives on your apps, notably round productiveness and multitasking. The chance to resize and reposition a number of app home windows permits customers to simply examine paperwork, reference info whereas composing emails, and multitask effectively.
By optimizing for desktop windowing, you possibly can ship distinctive person experiences to match the rising demand for tablet-based productiveness. On the similar time, you will improve the general person expertise on tablets, making your apps extra versatile and adaptable to completely different eventualities.
In case your app already meets the Tier 2 (Giant Screens optimized) high quality bar within the Giant display app high quality tips, then there may be minimal further optimization required! In case your app has not been optimized for giant screens but, updating it in keeping with the Giant display app high quality tips turns into much more essential within the context of desktop windowing. Let’s see why:
- Freeform resizing allows customers to resize apps to their choice for maximized productiveness. Contemplating this, builders ought to be aware:
- Apps with locked orientation are freely resizable. Which means, even when an exercise is locked to portrait orientation, customers can nonetheless resize the app to panorama orientation window. In a future replace, apps declared as non-resizable may have their UI scaled whereas protecting the identical side ratio.
- Adaptive layouts: By adapting your UI, apps have a possibility to effortlessly deal with a variety of window sizes, from compact to expanded display layouts. In desktop windowing, apps will be resized all the way down to a minimal dimension of 386dp x 352dp, so be sure that to leverage window dimension lessons to regulate your app’s structure, content material, and interactions to adapt to completely different window dimensions.
- State administration: With freeform resizing, configuration modifications occur every time the window resizes, so your app ought to both deal with these configuration modifications gracefully or be sure you are preserving the app state when the OS initiates the re-creation of the app. As a reminder, customers can change the display density whereas your app is operating, so it’s finest to make sure that your app can deal with display density configuration modifications as effectively.
- Desktop windowing takes productiveness on tablets to the following degree with a number of apps operating concurrently. Much like cut up display, Desktop windowing encourages customers to have a number of home windows open. Contemplating this, builders ought to be aware:
- Multitasking help: For enhanced productiveness, customers can have two or extra apps open concurrently, and so they anticipate to simply share content material between apps, so add help for drag and drop gestures. Additionally, guarantee your app continues to operate appropriately even when not in focus, and in case your app makes use of unique assets like digicam or microphone, the app must deal with useful resource loss gracefully when different apps purchase the useful resource.
- Multi-instance help: Customers can run a number of cases of your app side-by-side; for instance, a doc editor utility could permit customers to start out new paperwork whereas nonetheless with the ability to reference the already open paperwork. Apps can set this new Multi-instance property to declare that System UI must be proven for this app to permit it to be launched as a number of cases. Additionally be aware that in desktop windowing, new duties open in a brand new window, so double-check the person journey in case your app begins a number of duties.
- With desktop windowing, enter strategies past contact and insets dealing with turn out to be much more necessary for a seamless person expertise.
- Extra enter strategies (keyboard, mouse): Customers are extra possible to make use of your app with a wide range of enter strategies like exterior keyboards, mice, and trackpads. Examine that customers can work together easily together with your app utilizing keyboard and mouse peripherals or by way of the emulator. Builders can add help for app shortcuts and publish them utilizing the keyboard shortcuts API, which permits customers to simply view the supported app shortcuts by way of a standardized floor on Android gadgets.
- Insets dealing with: All apps when operating in desktop windowing have a header bar, even in immersive mode. Guarantee your app’s content material is not obscured by this. The brand new header bar is reported as a caption bar in Compose (androidx.compose.basis:foundation-layout.WindowInsets.Companion.captionBar) and in Views (android.view.WindowInsets.Sort.CAPTION_BAR), which is a part of the system bars. API 35 additionally launched a brand new look kind, to make the header bar clear, to permit apps to attract customized content material inside.
Determine 3. Apps with locked orientation are freely resizable.
Determine 4. Begin one other occasion of Chrome by dragging a tab out of the app window.
Word: Pictures are examples and topic to vary
Get hands-on!
Right this moment we’re saying a developer preview that gives you with an early alternative to expertise and check desktop windowing. You possibly can strive it out on Pixel Pill earlier than it’s launched to AOSP extra broadly. The preview is obtainable at the moment. Replace your Pixel Pill to the newest Android 15 QPR1 Beta 2 launch to check out desktop windowing. Should you don’t have a Pixel Pill helpful, entry the Pixel Pill emulator in Android Studio Preview, and choose the Android 15.0 (Google APIs Pill) goal. As soon as your system is about up, choose Allow freeform home windows choice in Developer choices to discover the capabilities of desktop windowing and the way your app behaves inside this new atmosphere.
By optimizing your apps for desktop windowing on Pixel Pill, you aren’t solely enhancing the app expertise on that particular system but additionally future-proofing your apps for the broader Android ecosystem the place freeform windowing will turn out to be prevalent. We’re excited in regards to the home windows of alternatives enabled by desktop windowing, and we sit up for seeing the way you adapt your apps for an enhanced person expertise.
We’re dedicated to enhancing the desktop windowing expertise by way of future updates. Be certain that to check your app and provides us suggestions. Say tuned for extra developer guides and assets!
