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Google is developing a new desktop experience for Android, the company announced at its I/O 2025 developer conference on Tuesday. It is collaborating with Samsung to build upon the foundations laid by Samsung DeX — short for Desktop eXperience, to improve the desktop windowing capabilities not just on phones and tablets powered by Android, but also for an expanding range of devices across form factors and features. It aims to provide a more desktop-oriented experience when devices are connected to external displays.
Desktop Experience in Android 16
During the keynote at Google I/O 2025, the company disclosed that it is collaborating with Samsung to improve the desktop windowing capabilities in Android 16 in order to enable "more powerful productivity workflows". A following post on the Android Developers blog gave further details regarding adaptable apps.
According to the Mountain View-based tech giant, Android 16 will include enhancements in desktop windowing to provide a "true" desktop-like experience. When a device is linked to an external screen, such as via USB, the additional capabilities will be activated.
Google says it is using Adaptive Android development as a strategic option to help apps operate well across a wider range of devices. Using certain design decisions, it emphasizes code reuse and scalability to guarantee that programs adapt to diverse screen sizes with little adjustments. This includes over 500 million active devices other than phones, such as foldables, tablets, Chromebooks, and car entertainment systems.
It expands on prior studies that provided insight into Google's desktop experience development. The new desktop experience is believed to allow customers to use larger screens on their phone, especially a Pixel, when linked to an external monitor, like as a laptop, via a USB Type-C port.
When a device is connected, a "enable desktop windowing on secondary displays" option apparently discovered in Android 16 Beta 4 displays the Android taskbar, status bar, and three-button navigation menu. The taskbar includes pinned programs like as Phone, Messages, Camera, Google Chrome, and the app drawer. According to sources, it will also be able to display recent applications in recent mode, which might improve multitasking capabilities.
