Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is developing a new split-screen mode for Android 16 that aims to improve multitasking on phone displays by using a 90:10 ratio.
- This allows one app to dominate the screen while the other remains accessible in a smaller portion, and tapping the smaller app swaps their sizes.
- Inspired by OnePlus’s Open Canvas, this feature could significantly enhance Android’s multitasking capabilities when it launches.
Multitasking on most Android phones is challenging due to their small displays. At best, they can fit two apps on screen simultaneously. However, this approach has drawbacks, as most apps are designed to utilize an average phone’s entire viewing area. Thankfully, Google is addressing this problem with a new split-screen mode configuration, which could arrive in an upcoming quarterly release of Android 16.
Google’s solution for split-screen mode on Android involves changing the old 70:30 ratio to a new 90:10 ratio. This means apps will no longer split with one taking 70% of the screen and the other 30%. Instead, one app will occupy 90% of the screen, leaving the remaining 10% for a secondary app. This allows one app to dominate the viewing area while still dedicating a small portion at the top or bottom for another app.
While this new 90:10 split-screen configuration allows most apps to be used comfortably when occupying the larger 90% portion, it doesn’t leave enough space for the secondary app to display much useful information. Fortunately, Google has a simple solution. When you tap on the app in the smaller 10% portion, Android quickly swaps the sizes of both apps. The tapped app then expands to take up 90% of the screen, and the other app reduces to 10%. This effectively allows one app to use nearly the entire screen while still enabling a quick switch to another app as needed.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
As demonstrated in the video embedded below, I initially launch Google Chrome and Google Keep in split-screen mode, with both apps sharing the viewing area equally (the default 50:50 ratio). I then resize Chrome to occupy the top 90% of the screen, with Keep taking up the bottom 10%. Subsequently, when I tap the Keep window at the bottom, Android resizes it to fill the bottom 90% of the screen, while Chrome contracts to the remaining 10% at the top.
This split-screen implementation is clearly inspired by the Open Canvas feature on OnePlus phones, which functions very similarly to what Google is developing. While it’s unknown if Google collaborated with OnePlus on this new split-screen feature, it promises to be a significant multitasking upgrade for Android phones when it becomes available. Although the exact release time frame is uncertain, it could happen soon. Google has been working on this feature for several months, and it appears nearly complete.