At Google's I/O conference today, the search engine giant officially showcased Android 13. But aside from it about to upgrade our smartphones, it is of course bringing a lot of special features tailored to Android tablets.
Those were showcased today to include some much-needed UI and multitasking changes:
Android 12L’s updates optimized the layout for bigger screen devices. Android 13 builds on this foundation by introducing better multitasking capabilities for tablets. With the updated taskbar, you can easily switch your single tablet view to a split screen. Just drag and drop any second app in your app library onto your screen and you’ll be able to do two or more things at once with ease. We’re also improving the experience for when you’re writing or drawing with a stylus pen. In Android 13, you can rest your hand comfortably on the screen without worrying about it being misidentified as a stylus pen, reducing any unintended actions.
Most notably, from a UI standpoint Android 13 will be bringing an updated notification shade, fitting more information at a glace, thus taking better advantage of a tablet's large display, as shown below.
Android 13 tablet home screen
Android 13's upgraded notification shade
As we can see, the notification shade is split in two halves, and features the new, rounded-corner Material You design we're also getting on smartphones. We can also see the amount of active apps currently running in the bottom left corner, and together with the latest notifications, we get immediate access to control settings like brightness, sharing, etc.
Finally - a taskbar!
Something I know many of us power users have wanted on Android tablets and iPads for a while is finally coming to one of those two! And that would be a desktop or Chrome OS-like app taskbar, staying fixed to the bottom even if you open an app, as shown below:
Google just beat Apple in bringing us a tablet taskbar!
Pressing the little icon on the far right end of the taskbar would show you all of your available apps, making it similar to a Start menu on a Windows PC, giving you easy access to your apps from anywhere.
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iPad-like drag and drop is coming to Android tablets too
Now something that we've had on iPads but is only just coming to Android tablets - drag and drop support. This means you will not only be able to drag and drop images from, say, your gallery app into a messaging app, as shown below, but even drag an app from the notification shade over to your current app to open split-screen!
Dragging and dropping an image from one app into another
And bang - there it is
Swipe up to overview your running apps
Another handy feature Google showcased today is "swipe up to overview," showing you the apps you've used recently for quick and easy switching between.
Apps that were previously open in split-screen with other apps will stay like this when you get back to them via this app switcher - handy!
Google is also updating over 20 of its apps to look better on Android tablets
Those include YouTube music, an optimized Google Maps showcasing more information, and an updated Messages app featuring a multi-column view. Third party apps like Facebook and TikTok were also mentioned to feature a revamped look on Android 13.
And that's pretty much what we got for today in terms of Android 13 on tablets, and although not much at a glance, those updates sound pretty exciting for us tablet fans! Right?
To learn more about Android 13 and what it'll be bringing to your smartphone too, head on over to our Android 13 information hub. And if you love Android tablets, be sure to check out our recent review of the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra!
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Rado, a tech enthusiast with a love for mobile devices, brings his passion for Android and iPadOS to PhoneArena. His tech journey began with MP3 players and has evolved to include tinkering with Android tablets and iPads, even running Linux and Windows 95 on them. Beyond tech, Rado is a published author, music producer, and PC game developer. His professional work on iPads, from producing songs to editing videos, showcases his belief in their capabilities. Rado looks forward to the future of mobile tech, particularly in augmented reality and multi-screen smartphones.
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