Android’s next big feature turns your phone into a desktop

Cool. Now let me legally record my phone calls without rooting my phone.

A beta build of Android 16 contains an early version of Google’s new Android Desktop Mode that, in the future, could let users simply plug their smartphone into a monitor and use it like a laptop or desktop computer.

!savedyouaclick@lemmy.world

Now the question is if people will be stupid enough to replace all the freedoms their desktop OS still gives them with the vendor controlled shit show that is mobile OS.

I swear they've been writing the same article for a year.

I used to think the idea of a phone that is also my desktop would be really cool. But then I got to thinking just how locked down iOS and to a lesser extent Android are compared to Linux/Windows/MacOS, and decided I wouldn't use my Pixel as a replacement for my desktop or laptop even if the feature was there.

Cool. Samsung did this a decade ago though.

Everyone is abandoning Android with a passion thanks to Google's bullshit.

do you think I am masochist or what, better give me gnu/linux on mobile ;)

Dex was kind of nifty if you had a monitor laying around. I'm guessing this is the non-Samsung version feature.

Microsoft tried the same idea about 10 years ago with Continuum, even including a hardware dongle: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Continuum https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/device-experiences/continuum-phone

Canonical had something similar, too, back in the days with their Ubuntu Touch and named it Convergence: https://www.linux.com/news/first-ubuntu-touch-tablet-brings-convergence-last/

That's cool and everything, yet we have an itsy-bitsy tiny problem: iirc, there are like 3.5 vendors that have opted into dp alt mode support, and each one I know of kinda sucks. I suppose it might be possible to simply enable it in software by changing the devicetree on usb3 devices or something if the port the vendor decided to route is the one multiplexed with dp, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Ability to recognize non-ASCII characters in the dialer? Nope... Ability to skip auto connect to the Bluetooth device? Nope, never again... Record phone calls? No, fuck you, we don't like it in US so it is banned to the whole world. Here you are a feature nobody asks for and shut up...

Didn’t canonical try this years ago?

Hopefully this means I can have a GraphineOS laptop (whenever google makes a new Pixel Laptop)

If you want deskktop version of Firefox or Chromium on your phone, you can get them using Termux. But yeah they will be slow.

This paired with virtualization features (hopefully with working sommelier) potentially enable running desktop wayland apps on phone.

And they chose to highlight as a feature making it like a pC, “you also get Windows PC–like abilities such as snapping windows to the left and right of the screen.”

What BS!

I'm excited to see how this will pair with android XR to potentially have a good desktop experience on the go. Just have to carry the headset wich i already do and mouse and keyboard for better controls.

PureOS on Purism Librem 5 let you plug-in phone to display and wa-la... actual desktop experience from just phone.