Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is working on a new developer option for Android 16 that will let you enable Android’s desktop experience features.
- This new option enables Android’s Desktop View on the device itself as well as on secondary displays.
- We don’t know what the final version of Desktop View will look like on secondary displays as it’s still in development.
The best Android phones are more than powerful enough to be the sole computer for most people, but most of them lack the software features that people are looking for in workstations. While Samsung and Motorola phones offer a PC-like experience when connected to an external display, Pixel phones and other Android devices lack a desktop mode. Fortunately, Google is testing a new Desktop View feature in Android 16 that could bring a better desktop mode experience to more phones and tablets.
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While Android already has a desktop mode feature, very few, if any, users utilize it due to its barebones nature. It is also buried within Android’s Developer Options, intended only for developers testing app behavior in freeform windows. This lack of a true desktop mode experience likely explains why most Google Pixel phones haven’t supported display output until recently.
However, Google has been steadily working to improve Android’s dormant desktop mode. The company recently introduced basic desktop windowing capabilities in the first Android 15 quarterly release, and it’s also testing new external display management tools in Android 16. While examining Android 16 Beta 3, I found strings suggesting a new ‘Enable desktop experience features‘ option will soon appear in developer options. The strings that I found suggest that these desktop experience features can be enabled on secondary displays only, or on both the device and secondary displays.
Code
Enable desktop experience features
Enable Desktop View on the device and on secondary displays.
Enable Desktop View on secondary displays. With a bit of tinkering, I managed to surface the aforementioned developer option, but I wasn’t able to actually get the feature working on my Pixel 8 Pro due to a bug.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
While the feature is currently named Desktop View, it’s possible that this is just a placeholder name. Since the feature is not yet live, the name could change before its public debut.
The feature’s functionality will definitely change before release, though, because Android’s current desktop windowing capabilities are nowhere near as robust as the likes of Samsung DeX, let alone full desktop operating systems. Google recently introduced these desktop windowing capabilities in December, so the company still has a lot of work to do to make Desktop View the full-fledged desktop mode experience we’ve all been waiting for.
For example, Google has yet to add features like a full desktop taskbar or launcher. The lack of these features makes Android cumbersome to navigate with a keyboard and mouse. Google has steadily improved keyboard and mouse input, though, so the addition of Desktop View will hopefully bring Android closer to becoming a true pocket PC. We hope that by Android 17’s release, Desktop View will be available without toggling a developer option.