If that isn’t enough, signs suggest Google’s also cookin’ up a new native Android Desktop Mode that’d let you plug a phone into an external monitor — with a keyboard and mouse connected — and use it like an actual computer. You’d see a fully functional desktop-style interface on the monitor while your phone remains in its standard usable state. It’s similar to systems certain Android device-makers are already offering, but as a native feature built into Android itself, it’d be more broadly available, standardized, and also actively (and consistently) developed and supported. Again, this one isn’t yet official, but it’s plainly being developed out in the open and where anyone can see it.
Last but not least, a rather bold new design change is now officially comin’ our way — one that brings bulky elements, bright colors, and all sorts of wacky fonts into Android’s exterior. Like any interface evolution, it’s bound to be divisive. (To wit: I asked readers of my Android Intelligence newsletter what they thought about the look last Friday, following an early leak of the info. As of this writing, 17% say they hate it, 14% say they love it, and everyone else falls somewhere in the middle.)
Google, for its part, is convinced the updated visuals will result in an easier-to-use, more efficient Android interface — with “time to tap on key actions decrease[d] by seconds” compared to the current approach.
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