Android 13 DP2 has a fun (and buggy) multitasking trick with notifications
Just becauseAndroid 12L, out for public consumption right now, istailored for large screensdoesn’t mean some of its features wouldn’t make sense on a smaller form factor. And withAndroid 13 Developer Preview 2, Google may be ready to spread some of that love.
Inan earlier breakdown of Android 12L, Esper technical editor Mishaal Rahman revealed the existence of a new gesture control where the user can long-press to grab a notification from the notification shade and then open its corresponding app by dropping it onto one portion of the open area of the screen. The new app is activated in split-screen mode when the gesture is performed while the user is in another app.
This feature made it from the betas into 12L’s stable release.
With today’s release of Android 13 DP2, Rahman was able to get the same control working.
In Android 13 DP2, it’s possible to now long press a notification and drag it to enter split-screen mode.
This was actually added to Android 12L and was hidden behind a feature flag:https://t.co/M7Cre8ZEon
It’s still pretty buggy, though.pic.twitter.com/9qY0zMcwm2
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman)March 17, 2022
We’re not exactly sure how intuitive that gesture would be, especially in the context of a smaller screen, since almost every user is used to a notification opening up something new such as an app or a custom reply field and not as a movable object in and of itself. Perhaps with some informed use, this could be a nifty shortcut.
This is a work in progress much like the rest of Android 13 is.We’ll have continuing coverage here on Android Police.
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