One of the biggest advantages of using an Android device with a larger screen is the ability to multitask more effectively. Android has long offered a split-screen mode that enables placing two apps side-by-side or one above the other on the screen. However, Android doesn’t natively offer the option to save your split-screen configuration. That means if you want to open a particular pair of apps in split-screen mode, you have to manually do it every time. Fortunately, Android could finally let you save an App Pair so you can quickly relaunch a pair of apps into split-screen mode.
Back in 2021 with the launch of Android 12, Googlerevampedhow Android’s split-screen mode works internally. Under the hood, the OS actually remembers which apps you’ve paired in split-screen mode so that it can show you that app pair in the recents screen. However, Google didn’t provide users a way to actually save that app pair to their home screen, meaning the pair would eventually disappear as the user opened more apps or manually cleared all tasks from the recents screen.
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Earlier this year with the release of Android 14 Beta 2, however, I discovered that Google was finally adding a button tosave an app pair. This button would appear in the context menu that pops up when you long-press on either icon of an app pair in the recents overview. However, the button was just a placeholder at the time, since the code to actually save the app pair to the launcher’s home screen had yet to be implemented.
With yesterday’s release ofAndroid 14 QPR2 Beta 2, the long-awaited App Pair feature finally seems to be working. After manually activating the flag controlling the feature, I managed to enable the App Pair feature as shown below. As you can see, tapping “Save app pair” now adds an icon to the home screen that shows the two apps in the saved pair. Though the icon’s text label gets cut off because of its length, the icon itself makes it clear what apps will be launched when you tap it.
Saving an app pair to the home screen in Android 14 QPR2 Beta 2
Indeed, tapping the icon launches the app pair I asked Android to save, as shown in the video below.
Unfortunately, it seems like the saved app pair icon can’t be added to a folder at the moment. Hopefully, this is rectified in a future build before the feature is released. I don’t know when the App Pair feature will actually release, but it’s possible we’ll see it roll out with the Android 14 QPR2 stable release in March 2024 or perhaps Android 15.
Separately, there’s code that suggests Google is working on letting users put two apps side-by-side in split-screen mode while your phone is in portrait mode, so it’s possible this feature will roll out in tandem with that upgrade to split-screen mode. Hopefully the feature rolls out sooner rather than later, because OEMs like Samsung have offered a version of this feature for years now.
