split-screen

Update: Freeform is mentioned in the Android N developer documents as a mode that manufacturers of larger devices can enable to allow users to freely resize an app.

Android N will bring a much-needed split-screen mode to tablets when it comes out this summer, but Google might have more ambitious plans as code references to “freeform windows” were discovered by Ars Technica in the Android N Developer Preview.

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Earlier this week, it was revealed that Google’s engineers are already working on baked-in split-screen multitasking support for Android. This was after the Pixel C team opened an AMA on Reddit to offer potential and existing customers the opportunity to pick their brains. Unsurprisingly, the topic of split-screen came up more than once. While some OEMs, like Samsung and LG, have built the feature in to their Android skins, Google is yet to bake it in to the core Android software.

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AndroidPolice has posted renders that it says are based on a split-screen multitasking mode that Google has been experimenting with for Android. It’s a feature Samsung has implemented into its own version of Android and used as a selling point in marketing over the competition. It’s also something that Apple is experimenting with for iPad.
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