Got a Google Pixel? Flip this secret Android 13 change
Your Pixel cellphone has entry to a superb new efficiency-enhancer, nevertheless it’s as much as you to dig it up and allow it.
inspire-studio/Google/JR Raphael
Friends, Android-appreciators, fellow Pixel-persons — pay attention up, for what I’m about to inform it’s possible you’ll very properly change how you concentrate on getting round your favourite Googley cellphone:
No matter what you’ve got seen with Android 13 to this point or how a lot digging you’ve got finished to unearth its many buried treasures, you nearly definitely have not skilled the software program’s most important and shape-shifting addition. And there’s good purpose for that: The addition is not technically obtainable in your system.
Android 13, as it’s possible you’ll know by now, is a story of two completely different working techniques. And whereas the enhancements on the usual Pixel cellphone entrance are definitely not insignificant, the development that has the potential to take advantage of significant distinction in your day-to-day life is not supposed for use in that surroundings. It’s restricted solely to foldable telephones and tablets (for now, no less than).
But get this: With about 30 seconds of considerate tinkering, you possibly can uncover that addition. And if you happen to’re something like me, you may in all probability be blown away by how a lot it improves your effectivity and transforms your Android expertise.
Allow me to clarify.
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Android 13’s unseen superpower
First, some necessary context to this: If there’s one overarching theme of Android 13 — what the discharge is finally all about, from a bigger-picture perspective — it is optimization.
More than something, Android 13 is meant to optimize the large-screen expertise on the ever-increasing variety of foldable Android telephones together with the incoming military of recent Android tablets.
Part of that’s merely catching up the place Google left off many moons in the past and beginning to concentrate as soon as once more to crafting a core Android interface and infrastructure that takes benefit of all the additional display area on these types of gadgets and makes use of it intelligently.
But a part of it is usually introducing one thing completely new into the equation — one thing that’ll really feel acquainted to anybody who’s spent utilizing Google’s different main platform, ChromeOS.
Maybe you’ve got seen it: Android 13 brings a supercharged model of the ChromeOS shelf, or taskbar, into Android. It’s a persistent bar that sits on the backside of the display on tablets and foldables and makes it particularly straightforward to entry any app, anytime, with out having to waste time plodding again to your private home display and poking round for the instrument you want.
It additionally introduces the intriguing new energy of splitting your system’s display on demand and seeing two apps collectively just by dragging an icon from that taskbar up into the principle space of your show. That brings a long-missing emphasis onto Android’s split-screen system and turns it from a forgotten afterthought right into a characteristic that abruptly appears related and helpful.
I’ve been spending a while with Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 4 cellphone, due to a loaner assessment unit on the AT&T community, and I’ve gotta inform ya: While you’d count on the {hardware} to be the star of the present with a product like that, it is actually been the brand new software-driven taskbar that stands out essentially the most. (The Galaxy Z Fold 4 does not truly run Android 13 but, nevertheless it does ship with final yr’s incremental Android 12L replace — which, fortunately, is the place that taskbar technically first appeared.)
Don’t get me flawed: The folding display is a powerful show of phone-making prowess. And it is a lot intriguing in and of itself.
But in utilizing the Fold 4, what I’m struck most by is the sensible worth that new Android taskbar aspect provides into the expertise. And greater than something, I hold discovering myself considering: Why is not this obtainable as an choice on all Android telephones?!
JR
Well, here is the little secret: It is — no less than, on gadgets operating Android 13, like your trusty Google Pixel. It’s simply as much as you to determine the best way to activate it. And it is not precisely apparent.
The Google Pixel Android 13 taskbar trick
All proper, honest warning earlier than we dive in any additional: Activating Android 13’s taskbar aspect in your Pixel requires a little bit of superior Android spelunkin’ (to make use of the technical time period). For the second, no less than, that aspect of the software program is meant for use solely on gadgets whose screens are a sure measurement, and so what we’ve to do is actually trick your Pixel into considering it is bigger than it truly is.
There’s no threat to you or your cellphone, and so long as you comply with these directions precisely, it is truly fairly straightforward. (It’s additionally extremely straightforward to undo, if you happen to ever determine you are not into it and wish to return.) But we shall be poking round in a delicate space of Android that is meant largely for developer use, and if you happen to veer off-course and mess with the flawed choice in that space, you can make issues screwy.
So proceed provided that you are snug — and stick intently to the instructions on this web page. Capisce? Capisce.
The first step to bringing Android 13’s taskbar onto your Pixel is heading into your cellphone’s normal settings — by swiping down twice from the highest of the display after which tapping the gear-shaped icon within the nook of the panel that comes up. Then, supplied your Pixel has Android 13 in place:
- Scroll right down to the underside of the settings menu and faucet “About cellphone.”
- Scroll right down to the underside of that display and discover the road labeled “Build quantity.”
- Tap your finger onto that line a bunch of occasions in a row till you see a immediate to allow developer mode on the system. You’ll in all probability need to put in your PIN, sample, or passcode to proceed.
- Now, with developer mode enabled, again out to the principle settings menu, faucet the search field on the high of the display, and sort the phrase smallest into the search immediate. That ought to reveal a developer choice referred to as “Smallest width.” Tap it!
- Tap “Smallest width” yet one more time, and within the immediate that comes up, first jot down the quantity that is there to begin — simply in case you wish to change it again later. Then change the worth to 600 and faucet “OK.”
JR
And that is it: At that time, the Android 13 taskbar ought to present up on the backside of your Pixel’s purty display. You’ll in all probability even get a neat little tutorial displaying you the way you should utilize it and conceal it if you need it out of the best way.
JR
The one catch with that is that to be able to trick your Pixel into considering its display is massive sufficient for the taskbar to be current, we needed to make all the parts on the show awkwardly small. And except you’ve gotten Superman-level eyesight, that is not precisely optimum.
So here is the repair for that: Head again into your cellphone’s essential settings menu, faucet “Display,” then faucet “Font measurement” and crank the slider all the best way to the fitting. (Depending in your system, you might need to faucet “Display measurement and textual content” earlier than you may see the “Font measurement” choice.) That’ll make the textual content greater all all through the working system, even when a number of the different parts could stay barely small round it.
Give it a while and see what you assume. You could properly get used to it — and you might also come to understand a number of the different results that come from having this zoomed-out display setup, comparable to the power to see six Android Quick Settings shortcuts as an alternative of 4 if you swipe down as soon as from the highest of your display and the extra desktop-like tab view Chrome reveals you on this context.
JR
You may additionally discover the presence of multipaned interfaces in sure apps that help you see completely different bits of information on display on the identical time.
Honestly, with a bigger cellphone specifically — like one the dimensions of the Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro — these types of parts could make a stunning quantity of sense. You’ve definitely received the display area for ’em. See how you’re feeling after a day or two of utilizing your cellphone with all of this enabled.
And if you happen to aren’t thrilled with it otherwise you wish to carry an Android-13-like taskbar aspect to an older Pixel or another system the place Android 13 is not but obtainable, learn on — ‘trigger there’s yet one more intriguing choice so that you can chew over.
An alternate Android 13 taskbar method
For an Android-13-esque taskbar expertise on a cellphone the place both you do not have Android 13 current or do not wish to cope with the unwanted effects of the system-level change we simply went over, a intelligent little app referred to as Taskbar is properly value your whereas to take a look at.
Taskbar provides a persistent taskbar onto any Android cellphone, no matter who made it or what Android model it is operating. And it could not be a lot simpler to stand up and operating:
- Install the Taskbar app from the Play Store.
- Open it and grant it the permission to show over different apps when prompted throughout its setup. (Taskbar comes from a good Android developer and does not require any system permissions, together with the power to entry the web, so it could not probably do something disconcerting along with your knowledge.)
- Flip the change on the high of the Taskbar setup display to show it on.
That’ll offer you a neat little collapsible taskbar that reveals up on the backside of your display and could be opened or closed as you would like:
JR
To be clear, this is not completely just like the native Android 13 implementation. Most notably, it does not embrace the cool drag-up-to-launch-split-screen functionality. But it does offer you helpful entry to any app anytime in a really related kind of setup — and that alone is a reasonably helpful energy to have.
So select your personal journey, and put together to embrace the complete energy of Android’s newest and best enchancment — even when it is not technically supposed for you.
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