Freeform windows may no longer be the bane of your Android app’s UX
Over the years, Google has taken small steps to adapt Android to larger screens. Android 10 introduced a universal desktop mode, while Android 12L includes a full suite of optimizations for tablets and foldables. But with Chromebook owners seemingly keen to seek utility from Android apps, no matter how badly they would be with a malformed UI in a freeform window, this just-announced addition to Android Studio sounds long overdue. .
The Chrome OS team is getting developers excited about emulating their projects with the new desktop Android virtual device on the upcoming Electric Eel version of Android Studio – as of press time, we’re still checking out Dolphin Canary 9 on the preview release page.
ANDROIDPOLICE video of the day
Android 12-based virtual desktops will let users see how their apps behave when called to resize in different states, operate with other apps in multi-window mode, render notifications, and draw activity transitions from the taskbar Way.
Google’s use of Android apps on Chrome OS has increased by 50 percent over the past year, and two-thirds of Chromebooks carrying Android Police readers use them at least occasionally, another frequent worry for app makers Surface basics, especially for game publishers who want to play Google Play games on PC.
But hey, knowing is half the problem. The new AVD is part of the other half.
Mozilla’s Thunderbird is going mobile, but it’s a decade too late
Read next
About the author