A beta construct of Android 16 incorporates an early model of Google’s new Android Desktop Mode that, sooner or later, might let customers merely plug their smartphone right into a monitor and use it like a laptop computer or desktop pc.
The brand new characteristic was shared by Android tinkerer Mishaal Rahman reporting for Android Authority. Rahman manually enabled Android Desktop Mode below developer choices on his Google Pixel 8 Professional operating the most recent Android 16 beta. After plugging it right into a USB-C suitable monitor, it instantly shows a PC-like interface on the exterior show, as you can see as in his video:
Android Desktop Mode places Android’s standing bar on the highest so you’ll be able to see your Wi-Fi and sign energy, and there’s a taskbar on the underside that allows you to pin apps for simple entry. The taskbar additionally offers you a Home windows Begin Menu-style app drawer, and also you get entry to Android’s native navigation buttons on the best finish of the taskbar. Apps run in windowed modes that look rather a lot just like the expertise on Android tablets, however you additionally get Home windows PC-like talents similar to snapping home windows to the left and proper of the display.
Final 12 months, Rahman discovered an early model of Google’s desktop expertise didn’t do far more than allow you to drop a resizable windowed app onto a much bigger display. In March, Google upped its talents to incorporate a show placement administration setting that allows you to drag containers to rearrange your cell display and monitor so you may make it simpler to navigate your cursor between them, very similar to the show association settings you’ll discover on desktop working methods.
Rahman says Desktop Mode may not be prepared at launch for Android 16, which is anticipated to launch this spring. It might come later in a quarterly replace and even as a part of Android 17, which received’t possible come till 2026.