I have an oldish Huawei tablet running Android 9, it has a split screen
mode which I occasionally find useful e.g. to look at details from a
website while watching a video from youtube.

I was looking at a review of upcoming Android 16 features, which
mentioned making split screen easier to access on phones.

wait! what? ... is that a feature already?

Apparently yes, not sure if it's Pixel specific, swipe up from the
bottom to access the normal task switcher (optionally swipe sideways to
pick a different app) then press the app icon at the top of the screen,
select split screen from the menu, then swipe sideways to select another
app.

By default you get a bar at 50:50 which you can drag to alter it to
25:75 or 75:25 as you see fit.

Probably less useful on the small screen of a phone, but who knew?

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On 27/5/25 7:37 am, Andy Burns wrote:

I have an oldish Huawei tablet running Android 9, it has a split screen
mode which I occasionally find useful e.g. to look at details from a
website while watching a video from youtube.

I was looking at a review of upcoming Android 16 features, which
mentioned making split screen easier to access on phones.

wait! what? ... is that a feature already?

Apparently yes, not sure if it's Pixel specific, swipe up from the
bottom to access the normal task switcher (optionally swipe sideways to
pick a different app) then press the app icon at the top of the screen, select split screen from the menu, then swipe sideways to select another
app.

By default you get a bar at 50:50 which you can drag to alter it to
25:75 or 75:25 as you see fit.

Probably less useful on the small screen of a phone, but who knew?

I did, but it doesn't work with some apps - in my case, nearly all the
apps where I would find it useful. I'll try them again now you've
brought it to mind.

--
Tetbury, Gloucestershirel, UK

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

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Bob Henson wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

I was looking at a review of upcoming Android 16 features, which
mentioned making split screen easier to access on phones.

it doesn't work with some apps

Only app I've noticed it blocked is banking; I thought 2FA
authenticator might not allow being split with firefox, but it works.

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On 27/5/25 10:00 am, Andy Burns wrote:

Bob Henson wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

I was looking at a review of upcoming Android 16 features, which
mentioned making split screen easier to access on phones.

it doesn't work with some apps

Only app I've noticed it blocked is banking; I thought 2FA
authenticator might not allow being split with firefox, but it works.

The Tesco shopping app ( I use it quite often) springs to mind allow
screen splitting. My password app used to be a problem, but has been
improved. There are others where I've tried splitting unsuccessfully,
but obviously I don't use them often as they do not immediately come to
mind.

As you say, on a small screen it's not so much of an asset as a larger
screen, but it's very useful to simply cutting and pasting short bits
like names and passwords between apps.

--
Tetbury, Gloucestershirel, UK

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Andy Burns <[email protected]> wrote:

I have an oldish Huawei tablet running Android 9, it has a split screen
mode which I occasionally find useful e.g. to look at details from a
website while watching a video from youtube.

I was looking at a review of upcoming Android 16 features, which
mentioned making split screen easier to access on phones.

wait! what? ... is that a feature already?

Apparently yes, not sure if it's Pixel specific, swipe up from the
bottom to access the normal task switcher (optionally swipe sideways to
pick a different app) then press the app icon at the top of the screen, select split screen from the menu, then swipe sideways to select another
app.

By default you get a bar at 50:50 which you can drag to alter it to
25:75 or 75:25 as you see fit.

Probably less useful on the small screen of a phone, but who knew?

I use it quite a bit. eg for pulling up the calculator while entering the numbers from another app. Especially when it's not a straightforward cut
and paste so you'd have to go back and forth a lot[*]

One trick is to put the app you're likely to type into on the top. Then
when the popup onscreen keyboard appears it obscures the other app, rather
than things moving around every time you want to enter something.

It's not just fixed ratios either, you can adjust to any split.

Theo

[*] I don't know why banking apps block it, because surely copying sort code
/ account number from an email, invoice or whatever is a common thing people want to do? Less likely to make mistakes if you can see both on screen at once.

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Andy Burns <[email protected]> writes:

Probably less useful on the small screen of a phone, but who knew?

I knew, as I sometimes activate split screen by accident. It's been
around for a while, I think I've had these accidents at least since my
Galaxy S21 which came with Android 11.

https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/layout/support-multi-window-mode says split screen mode was already in Android 7.

I have a vague memory hearing some Android beta had free windowing (what
Google calls Desktop windowing mode). Looks like that's optional and
also in Android 7 already.

And no, haven't found much use for split screen on a small phone
screen. Maybe it's more of a tablet thing. And desktop windowing mode
might work for people who like to turn their phones into computers with external displays and mouse and keyboard.

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On 2025-05-27 15:13, Anssi Saari wrote:

Andy Burns <[email protected]> writes:

Probably less useful on the small screen of a phone, but who knew?

I knew, as I sometimes activate split screen by accident. It's been
around for a while, I think I've had these accidents at least since my
Galaxy S21 which came with Android 11.

I knew since buying y current phone or the other one. The feature was
included in the "tour" of the device. I decided I had not much use for
it. Yes, I also have done it at some point by accident.

Sometimes I have to paste several data between two apps, then I did not remember how to activate.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

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Carlos E. R. wrote:

Sometimes I have to paste several data between two apps, then I did not remember how to activate.

Though you can select/copy/paste between apps without using split screen.

On my tablet there is an actual split icon (like a fat equals sign) in
the task switcher, so the feature is discoverable rather than hidden.

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On 2025-05-27 18:07, Andy Burns wrote:

Carlos E. R. wrote:

Sometimes I have to paste several data between two apps, then I did
not remember how to activate.

Though you can select/copy/paste between apps without using split screen.

Sure. But it means repeatedly switching several times between both apps.

On my tablet there is an actual split icon (like a fat equals sign) in
the task switcher, so the feature is discoverable rather than hidden.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

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