Freeform windows may no longer be the bane of your Android app UX
Over the years, Google has taken baby steps to adapt Android towards bigger screens. With Android 10 came the advent of a generic desktop mode while Android 12L contained a full suite of optimizations for tablets and foldable devices. Chromebook owners, though, seem keen on seeking utility from Android apps, though, so Android Studio’s latest addition that will let app developers patch up that experience sounds well overdue.
The Chrome OS team is getting devs excited about emulating their projects with the new Desktop Android Virtual Device on the upcoming Electric Eel release of Android Studio — we’re still looking at Dolphin Canary 9 on the preview releases page as of press time.
The Android 12-based virtual device will let users see how their app behaves when called upon to resize at different states, operate with other apps in multi-window mode, render notifications, and draw activity toggles from the taskbar.
With Google seeing a 50% increase in Android app use on Chrome OS over the past year and two-thirds of Android Police readers using them at least occasionally, this will be yet another surface for app makers to worry about on a regular basis, especially with game publishers who want a piece of Google Play Games on PC.
https:/twitter.com/MishaalRahman/status/1523003081612402688
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