What it’s good to know
- With the second Android 15 Developer Preview, customers can select between a pinned or hidden taskbar on large-screened Pixel units.
- The choice marks the return of the Android 12L-style taskbar, which was current on the backside of the display on a regular basis.
- Now, Pixel Fold and Pixel Pill customers can make use of a persistent taskbar for multitasking or a hidden taskbar for additional display actual property.
Google despatched out the second Android 15 Developer Preview this previous week, and it features a change that’ll profit homeowners of the Google Pixel Fold or Pixel Pill.
Now that the corporate makes just a few big-screened units, Google has been swiftly optimizing Android for bigger shows. A part of that effort included including the taskbar as a strategy to shortly launch apps and multitask from wherever in Android, and beginning with Android 15 DP2, customers have the selection of getting a pinned or floating taskbar.
Because it was launched just a few years in the past, the taskbar has advanced fairly a bit. In Android 12L, it was a everlasting fixture on the backside of huge Android units. It remained on the display whereas customers opened up different apps, thus slicing into the full display area out there. That is why Google reversed course in Android 13, transitioning the taskbar right into a floating oval that could possibly be proven or hidden as wanted. Nonetheless, there was by no means a manner to decide on between these taskbar variants.
That’s, till now. Android skilled Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority first observed the choice to decide on between taskbar kinds in Android 15 DP2. After tapping and holding on an open area within the taskbar, a brand new At all times present taskbar toggle will seem. There is a toggle beside it, and tapping the toggle will transition the windowed taskbar into the pinned taskbar.
Whereas the Android 15 DP2 model of the floating taskbar is visually up to date with the brand new Android design language, it is roughly functionally similar to the outdated model.
Android 15 DP2 lastly provides the “taskbar pinning” characteristic I first noticed backed in Android 14 Beta 3!This characteristic lets Pixel Fold and Pixel Pill customers revert again to the outdated, persistent taskbar fashion launched in Android 12L.Extra particulars 👇https://t.co/Upo1d7tQ5zMarch 22, 2024
There are clear advantages to going with every taskbar model. The pinned taskbar possibility makes it simpler to name up new apps, create multitasking views, and change between lively apps. Alternatively, the floating taskbar offers you extra display area to replenish with Android apps. The advantage of the Android 15 DP2 change is that Pixel Fold and Pixel Pill customers now have the choice of selecting the taskbar model they like finest.