Multitasking is one of Android’s biggest strengths over iOS as a mobile operating system. With features like split-screen viewing, picture-in-picture mode and bubbles, Android offers many ways to interact with apps while using other apps. In Android 12, the picture-in-picture mode is configured to obtain several new features, while bubbles can receive subtle adjustments of animation.
Picture-in-Picture mode on Android 12
Picture-in-picture mode was first introduced for phones on Android Oreo, but has seen relatively few functional updates since then. In Android 11, Google quietly added the ability to resize PiP windows. Expanding / reducing a PiP window involves dragging your finger in or out, starting from outside one of the corners. In my experience, the gesture is somewhat inconsistent and can be improved.
Resize picture-in-picture windows on Android 11
Fortunately, Google is working on new ways to resize PiP windows on Android 12. You can press to resize and also double tap to automatically resize the window to its maximum size (or return to the last resized state). A nice crossfade animation will be used when resizing, making it look uniform.
Resize adjustments are not all that is new in picture-in-picture mode on Android 12. Google is also preparing to add a “storage” feature to PiP windows. This feature will allow users to temporarily hide most of the PiP window by dragging it to the left / right edge until about a third of the PiP window is off the screen. Users can also launch the PiP window to hide it from edge to edge. PiP windows can be removed simply by touching them.
New bubble animations
Android’s Bubbles feature was born out of a desire to replace the operating system’s extensive System_Alert_Window API with a more focused API that exists to give all messaging apps the Facebook chat feature. It has gone from a beta feature on Android 10 to a public feature on Android 11 and, on Android 12, it is configured to receive some user interface tweaks. First, Google is working on new bubble animations. There will be a fading / reducing animation when dragging an expanded bubble, smoother expansion / collapse animations and a smoother transition between bubbles. In landscape mode, bubbles will be shown vertically on the left / right side instead of horizontally at the top. Google is also allowing for flexible bubble sizing and fixed placement, two features that are said to be designed for Chrome OS and its ARC ++ container.
A video showing the Bubbles features of Android 11 on Facebook Messenger.
Application pairs
In addition to the changes to the windows and PiP bubbles, Google is also preparing to update Android’s split-screen multitasking system with the addition of application pairs. Application pairs allow you to launch application pairs configured to start in split-screen display, a feature that first appeared in software from other OEMs and third-party developers. 9to5Google first revealed the existence of this feature, and now we can confirm that it is present in Android 12.
We don’t know what these changes will look like on Android 12, but we probably won’t have to wait long to find out. These features may not be active in the first Android 12 Developer Preview and, if they are, we will try to activate them so that we can demonstrate these changes.
Picture shown: Picture-in-picture mode on Android 11