A beta construct of Android 16 accommodates 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 function was shared by Android tinkerer Mishaal Rahman reporting for Android Authority. Rahman manually enabled Android Desktop Mode beneath developer choices on his Google Pixel 8 Professional operating the most recent Android 16 beta. After plugging it right into a USB-C appropriate 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 power, and there’s a taskbar on the underside that allows you to pin apps for straightforward entry. The taskbar additionally provides you a Home windows Begin Menu–fashion app drawer, and also you get entry to Android’s native navigation buttons on the correct finish of the taskbar. Apps run in windowed modes that look quite a bit just like the expertise on Android tablets, however you additionally get Home windows PC–like talents akin 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 rather more than allow you to drop a resizable windowed app onto a bigger screen. In March, Google upped its talents to incorporate a show placement administration setting that allows you to drag bins to rearrange your cell display and monitor so you can also make it simpler to navigate your cursor between them, very like the show association settings you’ll discover on desktop working techniques.
Rahman says Desktop Mode won’t be prepared at launch for Android 16, which is expected to launch this spring. It might come later in a quarterly replace and even as a part of Android 17, which gained’t seemingly come till 2026.