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Foldables will be able to show apps on both screens at once with Android 14

One of the trademark features of book-style foldables like the Pixel Fold is that there are screens both inside and out but, for the most part, only one screen can be used at once. Soon, though, that may change, with expanded support for dual display mode for foldables in Android 14.

When using a device such as the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Pixel Fold, or OnePlus Open, you’re usually deciding which display you want to use at any given time. There are really only two examples where the outer screen and inner screen can be used at the same time. The first is the camera apps, where the outer display can be used as a viewfinder to take selfies with the rear cameras, all the while the inner screen is still on. The other is the Pixel Fold’s Interpreter Mode (pictured above), which rolled out last month.

However, Interpreter Mode may lay the foundation for more apps using both displays at once. As Android Police reports, Google is adding “experimental window APIs for accessing the rear screen” to Jetpack WindowManager libraries. This was already partially in place in Android 13, but in Android 14, Google is specifically adding support for “dual display mode” which allows an app to show content on both displays at the same time.

This new option is available to all app developers, as well as all Android makers, so there’s potential to see this used quite a bit.

What could it be used for? That really remains to be seen. Outside of the camera and Interpreter Mode we’ve already seen, I’m struggling to come up with particularly good ideas for how this could be used. Perhaps for in-person games? I’m not really sure. If you’ve got any ideas, drop them in the comments below!

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Avatar for Ben Schoon Ben Schoon

Ben is a Senior Editor for 9to5Google.

Find him on Twitter @NexusBen. Send tips to schoon@9to5g.com or encrypted to benschoon@protonmail.com.


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