Google unveils more information about desktop mode in Android Q

With Android Q, Google continues its efforts to extend Android beyond the traditional factors of smartphone, tablet, smartwatch and television. The Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X foldable smartphones have drawn our attention to the native support of Android Q for the foldable form factor, but Google quietly asks developers to rework their applications to support another multi-screen scenario: desktops and monitors.

Huawei and Samsung led the charge by bridging the gap between the smartphone and the desktop PC with the introduction of Easy Projection and DeX respectively. As tradition dictates, Google exploits the best parts of OEM software and slowly incorporates them into AOSP. In Android Q, the company adds native support for a "desktop mode". You will not know it, though, because the company never mentioned it during its Google I / O Google speech, but instead relegated it to a small part of a session on creating new products. 39, applications for collapsible formats and multiple displays (AKA desktop mode).

In the conference titled "Building Applications for Foldable, Multi-Screen and Large-Screen Devices," Andrii Kulian, software engineer for the Android Team WindowManager framework working on multi-display, shared details on how developers can prepare their applications for multi-screen applications. display environments.

"Foldable phones can have multiple screens, but you can also find multiple screens in cars, in phones connected to larger screens in desktop mode, in Chrome OS, etc." – Andrii Kulian, Google.

Development for the new desktop mode in Android Q

If you want to update your Android application to support desktop environments, you must view the built-in session at the end of this article. I will summarize the key points, however:

• For your application to support simultaneous use on the main (phone) and secondary (monitor) screens, your application must support multiple instances. With the NEW_TASK and MULTIPLE_TASK intention indicators, Android Q can create a second window of your application on the secondary screen.
• The new multi-CV behavior also applies to multi-display scenarios. Thus, you can configure your application to run while another application is activated.
• If you think your application should be launched primarily on the primary or secondary display, you can check the indicators, metrics, and status to find the right display on which the activity should be launched. Note that the system may restrict the launch of activities on private screens for which Google has added a new API in Android Q to check if the caller can initiate an activity on a specific activity.

  

  

  
  

• Google added support in Android Q to display the software's keyboard window on the secondary screen. Although it is still possible to have a single software keyboard window at a time, it can move from one screen to another.
• Backgrounds and animated screens can be separated on multiple screens.
• As shown in the feature image, Desktop mode supports third-party launchers on secondary screens. Google has added a new category to the Intention Filter to provide an activity dedicated to secondary screens. The activity must have a launch mode that does not prevent multiple instances and that adapts to different screen sizes. The user can set the launcher of his choice on the device. If the currently selected launcher has an activity dedicated to secondary screens, it will be inserted by the system.
• Developers can test their applications on secondary screens by enabling "forced desktop mode", which enables system declarations on all supported screens and displays the mouse pointer instead of the current display, and "Enable freeform windows" to allow floating application windows. However, you will need to restart the device for the changes to take effect. If you have a Google Pixel, you can try Desktop Mode by activating a simulated view in the developer options. On other devices that support HDMI display, you can try desktop mode if you have a USB-C to HDMI adapter. For example, Essential Phone launches the new desktop mode in Android Q by simply plugging it into a monitor.

I'm going for the opportunity, but I think the next Pixel 4 will support the display via HDMI so that Google can introduce the new Android Q desktop mode as a feature. We will know in 5 months when Google will launch the new pixels.

Thanks to farmerbb, senior member of XDA, for the warning!