Android 14 DP1: Taskbar for tablets adds text labels to app icons

Ben Schoon | Feb 8 2023 - 10:42 am PT

The taskbar is one of the biggest new features added to Android for foldables and tablets, and in the first developer preview of Android 14, Google is tweaking it with names showing on app icons.

When switching to a tablet DPI (600+) on the first Android 14 developer preview, the taskbar now shows text names below app icons. We’ve seen this behavior before, but not as the default look of the taskbar.

Notably, this comes after Android 13 QPR2, which is now in beta, changed how the taskbar worked. Instead of being a constantly visible bar, Google switched it to have the taskbar show on a swipe up, which Google calls a “transient taskbar,” and it should feel quite familiar to anyone who’s used an iPad in recent years.

In Android 14, that behavior remains in place, but with the addition of text labels for each app in the taskbar. It’s an interesting choice on Google’s part. In its current state, the text labels are a little funky, but this could boil down simply to using them on a smaller device (a Pixel 7, in our case).