Android 13 QPR2 could bring the taskbar to smaller screens
Google has yet to launch its extensively teasedGoogle Pixel Tabletand its rumoredGoogle Pixel Fold, but the company is already hard at work optimizing its software for these two form factors. While Android itself offers some improvements for these form factors already, Google’s Pixel Launcher and other first-party software isn’t 100% there just yet. In the firstAndroid 13 QPR2 beta, we can see some tweaks to the tablet-focused taskbar that could make it work even better on smaller screens, like those of foldables or even phones.
Mishaal Rahman, Esper’s Senior Technical Editor, spotted a taskbar redesign hidden in Android 13 QPR2. It’s supposed to be a “transient taskbar” according to strings in Google’s code. The name already suggests what it does differently. Rather than staying visible on the screen at all times unless you long-press and hold to hide it, the bar automatically disappears after a short time and can only be revealed by a swipe up. Design-wise, the new taskbar is sitting in a floating panel rather than in a fixed space at the bottom of the screen.
The feature doesn’t appear to be 100% finished yet, and the swipe up and down gestures attached to it make it more difficult to access the home gesture. Right now, the taskbar is also only accessible when using high display density settings higher than 600 that make it uncomfortable for long-term use on phones.
The taskbar might not be limited to big-screen devices only forever, though. In the firstAndroid 13 Feature Drop, released earlier in December, a new developer flag was spotted that allows you to enable the taskbar instead of the gesture navigation bar at the bottom of the phone interface. This shows that Google is working on taskbar support on phones (or devices with a display density lower than 600), and it ties in neatly with this new, space-saving revamp of the taskbar.
Another experimentalso makes it possible to access the taskbar in the Recents screen. With that option enabled, the taskbar automatically appears whenever you open the multitasking overview, allowing you to quickly drag and drop apps to open them in split-screen interfaces.
Back when Android 12L was new, renowned Android and web developer Danny Lin managed to customize a build to enable the taskbar on phones. The taskbar in the upcoming Android 13 release could look similar to that.
As with any of these changes spotted in development, it’s not necessarily a given that Google will release them. The company could just use these options for internal testing, and it’s possible for the company to decide to scrap it. That said, the taskbar should at the very least be available on the rumored Pixel Fold, which could still benefit greatly from these options. After all, a folding phone still has less screen real estate than a tablet that can easily display a taskbar at all times.
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