Android 14 beta brings support for a desktop mode
You will arrive home or the office, connect your smartphone to a dock, and work or enjoy. No laptops or PCs. Your computer will be your mobile phone . That was the promise of convergence.
Everything indicates that this will end up being one of the new features of Android 15 and, perhaps, of the future Pixel 9
That is what it seems according to the latest news in the development versions of Android 14 that will lead to Android 15. In the last of them, Android 14 QPR3 Beta 2.1 (Quaterly Platform Release 3) it is possible to activate a couple of options to access to desktop mode .
To ensure that this option is activated when connecting a terminal with this operating system, the mobile phone will have to have support for video output from its USB-C port. They have done it, for example, on Android Authority or on the ETA Prime YouTube channel – they tried it with a Pixel 8 Pro – and the result is very interesting.
Especially since the windows that open on that desktop can be resized, which of course allows you to easily work with several of them. Android does not offer a default launcher for this experience, but it is possible to install applications like “Taskbar” that precisely provide that taskbar so that the interface is more similar to that of our PCs with Windows, macOS or Linux.
Android Authority makes it clear that there are important limitations: apart from the launcher, they mention that there are no keyboard shortcuts that tend to simplify the management of windows, and in many cases drag and drop support does not work.
Still, the fact that this option is available and that Google has enabled video output on its Pixel 8/Pro is promising news for the future of this feature. One that once encouraged manufacturers to create curious accessories to take advantage of it and turn our mobile phones into laptops.
In fact, it may be one of the protagonists of Android 15 and the future Pixel 9 that should theoretically arrive next fall. And if, as it seems, the feature is part of this operating system, it will be something that will turn virtually any Android mobile (with video output support, we insist), into a miniPC that can be used anywhere.
Without a doubt, there are still many issues to be resolved, but Google may have finally decided to enable one of the options that will undoubtedly make a difference with the iPhone. Unless, of course, Apple is also thinking about the same thing , something that a priori does not seem like they are doing.