Android 12 already has its second outstanding developer preview and, as always happens with these things, some of its future features have yet to be revealed. They didn’t because although they appear in the source code of the system, the features are disabled for the time being.
This happened with the one-handed mode of use which was activated in this version, and it is probably happening with a desktop mode that Android Police managed to activate, and which may happen in later versions. We say ‘could’ because maybe the mode will eventually go away to be tweaked and revealed later, but indications suggest that its operation is already mature enough.
Icon dock for large diagonal screens
In the world of mobiles and tablets, we have already seen some desktop modes, so called because an interface is activated in the operating system specific to when we are connected to an external screenEither this connection is wired or not. Samsung DeX, for example, is one of the best known and allows you to work with Samsung phones as if we were in front of a laptop. Motorola has another one as well.
Now, Google has integrated a desktop mode in Android 12 which seems to work the same for tablets and external displays. A mode that allows, among other things, to activate a lower menu of icons, a ‘dock’ to quickly switch from one application to another and facilitate work with large diagonal screens, or simply during a operation with a tablet.
Here is a screen recording pic.twitter.com/jqBSwY7lA9
– Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) March 17, 2021
This mode hidden in the source code of Android 12 was enabled by Android Police and seems to only work when we use Android 12 on a tablet or on a device with a large diagonal, such as external screens or devices with a folding screen. The logical thing would be that, given how it works, we can get it activated before the final release of Android, which is expected in August.
As we have already mentioned, some features of Android may disappear during the development and beta phases, but this mode for large diagonal screens seems mature enough to that its activation is a matter of a few decisions within Google. Hopefully we can see him in operation in one of his public betas.
Via | Android Police
