Google will soon let you test Android 16’s new Desktop Mode on your phone
The next Android 16 QPR1 beta could bring Android’s new desktop experience features to phones
- Google officially announced its new desktop mode for Android phones, bringing a PC-like experience to external displays.
- Built with Samsung on the DeX foundation, it offers enhanced desktop windowing and will be testable in an Android 16 quarterly beta.
- This mode enables freeform app windows, independent display operation, and the ability to extend sessions across multiple screens.
At this week’s Google I/O developer conference, Google finally confirmed some details of its long-awaited desktop mode feature for Android phones. The company not only confirmed that it’s building a new desktop mode experience for phones connected to external displays but that this experience will be available for testing soon in an upcoming Android 16 quarterly beta.
Earlier this month, Android Authority revealed that Google is developing its own DeX-like desktop mode experience for Android. This feature offers an intuitive, desktop-like interface on external displays, complete with a taskbar for launching pinned or recent apps in freeform windows. It builds upon the desktop windowing foundations that Google developed for tablets in the first quarterly release of Android 15, but it adds extra options to account for the fact that these windowing features are now shown on an external rather than an internal display.
