An extra spot for your apps
Google sure does have a lot of fires in the oven right now. It has yet to launch a stable version of Android 12L — its next revision for Android, designed with large displays in mind — but this week, we got our hands on Android 13 DP1. With these two builds crossing over in development, we’re bound to see some differences pop up. With Android 13, Google’s 12L taskbar is already seeing a new change.
When Android 12L was first announced back in October, one of the first things anyone noticed was the addition of a taskbar on displays large enough to support it. Unlike Android’s standard dock, this taskbar is more in line with Chrome OS, making it easy to pin an app and swap between them with just a single tap.
Android 12L’s taskbar.
While 12L’s builds have limited this layout to five apps, Android 13 DP1 takes this one step farther. As spotted by Mishaal Rahman at Esper.io, Google has already expanded the taskbar to six spots, with the ability to show suggested apps just as the Android dock currently does. It’s a small change, but if you have a supported device, it should make your foldable or tablet feel a little more spacious.
Android 13’s taskbar on large screens, now showing six apps.
Android 13 DP1 is chock-full of small changes like this. We expected to see a new developer preview or beta each month from now through the summer, though the most significant changes will likely be announced at Google I/O in May.
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