Android 15's revamped desktop mode could run directly on tablets: Here's a first look

With how powerful Android tablets have become, many people have been looking for ways to turn them into their only PC while on the go. Unfortunately, stock Android is still way behind desktop operating systems when it comes to robust multitasking and windowing features, but Google is thankfully starting to address Android’s deficiencies in these areas. While developing Android 15, for example, Google has quietly revamped Android’s built-in desktop mode with new windowing options. In its original inception, Android’s desktop mode was fairly simplistic and was only activated when you connected your device to an external display, but while mucking around with the latest in-development version of the feature, we discovered that it can now run directly on tablets, too.

For a bit of context, Android first added a desktop mode in 2019’s Android 10 release, but it was really barebones. While you could launch apps in freeform windows, you couldn’t do many basic things like snap windows to the sides or minimize them to the taskbar. This desktop mode existed solely to help developers test their apps in multi-display scenarios; it was never intended to be activated by users, hence why it was locked behind a developer option.

Since late 2022, though, Google has slowly been working to improve Android’s built-in desktop mode. The bulk of the changes landed in this year’s Android 15 release. They added proper window captions, the ability to snap windows, hover options, window resizing, and a whole lot more You can see these changes in this demo of Android 15’s desktop mode.

Given the fact that Google finally activated display output support on a Pixel phone for the first time with the Pixel 8’s June 2024 Pixel Feature Drop update, many people believed that Google was revamping Android’s desktop mode solely to compete with Samsung DeX on Galaxy phones. But DeX doesn’t only work with Galaxy phones hooked up to an external monitor — it also runs directly on Galaxy tablets, too.

Google makes its own tablet now, the Pixel Tablet, and there are rumors of a successor in the not-so-distant future. It would make a lot of sense for Android’s revamped desktop mode to not only work on phones hooked up to external displays but also on tablets with large enough displays, which is why I wasn’t surprised when I managed to get the new desktop mode running locally.

As you can see in the video, a new “desktop” button can appear when you tap the dropdown menu in the recents screen. Tapping the “desktop” button launches the app in a freeform window in Android’s desktop mode environment. Here, the window can be moved, snapped to the side, resized, minimized, maximized, or joined by other app windows.

When the desktop mode is active and you return to the home screen, you can reenter the environment by tapping on the “desktop” card in the recents screen or by opening an app, expanding its window caption, and then tapping on the button to launch it in a freeform window.

Google looks to be taking a similar approach to the “New Samsung DeX” experience on Galaxy tablets. New DeX is basically a version of the home screen that’s dedicated to multitasking with freeform windows. It has a taskbar, app drawer, and all the home screen app icons and widgets, but it’s not an entirely separate environment. Android’s version doesn’t sync the home screen like New DeX does, but it’s possible that could change as development of the feature progresses.

I enabled this feature on my Pixel device running the latest Android 15 Beta 4.1 release, but as usual, I don’t know when Google plans to release it. It’s possible they might never release this revamped desktop mode experience since their priorities could change in the future. We’ll keep an eye out to see if there are any further developments that warrant mention.