The latest Android 15 QPR beta makes your Pixel tablet more of a desktop than ever before

Android 15 QPR 1 Beta 2 is now available for supported Pixel devices. It brings one huge change to the Android platform: desktop windowing. We’ve talked about it before, but now Google is officially rolling out desktop windowing to Android tablets and advising developers on best practices for their apps to adapt to this new UX.

Google’s blog post doesn’t focus on when desktop windows will come to Android. However, it does formally announce that floating windows are being improved for tablet users. Android tablet enthusiasts will now be able to run multiple apps at once and resize windows on the fly, bringing the implementation of floating windows on par with solutions like Samsung Dex.

As mentioned, the desktop windowing feature allows users to run multiple apps at once and resize app windows just like we are used to doing on conventional desktops. Google has fixed the taskbar’s position at the bottom of the screen, and it can display running apps and apps pinned by the user. There is also a new header bar that includes window controls.

Bringing up a desktop window on Android tablets will be easy. All apps will open in full screen mode by default, but you can long press the window handle/pill on the status bar and drag it anywhere to pop out of the UI into its own window. Once an app is launched in a window and you are in the desktop space, all future apps will launch as desktop windows until you close all desktop windows.

There are also other ways to invoke windowed mode on the desktop:

• They can be invoked from the menu under the window handle after touching/clicking it.
• It can be invoked using the keyboard shortcut: (Windows/Command/Search) + Ctrl + Down Arrow.

You can exit the windowed desktop mode by closing all windows one by one or by dragging the window handle back to the top of the screen. You can also use the keyboard shortcut: (Windows/Command/Search) + H to restart apps in full screen.

The rest of the Google blog post outlines several recommended practices for app developers to adapt their apps to this new user experience. Developers should use adaptive layouts in their apps and try to support multitasking features like drag and drop to share content between apps. They should also consider whether they should support running multiple instances of their apps, such as in browsers.

The desktop window is available on Pixel tablets running Android 15 QPR 1 Beta 2, before it becomes more widely available for AOSP (likely with Android 16). You will need to select the option in Settings > Developer Options > Enable Freeform Windows.

Have you tried out the Desktop Window on Pixel Tablet with Android 15 QPR 1 Beta 2? If so, what was your experience? Let us know in the comments below!