This has been hidden in developer options for a while now, but they’re now releasing it officially. Limited to Pixel 8 and newer devices and no 4k yet.
There is no such thing as an Android PC.
A PC where I can’t install what I want? WTF is the point of that bullshit.
Thanks but I’ll stick to my steam deck for my portable Linux computing needs where I can do what the hell I want.
I had video out via MHL back in like 2013 and a usable desktop environment on an HTC M7 or something like that. Haven’t had a phone that could do anything similar since, and it’s kind of wild with how much more powerful phones are these days that desktop modes aren’t more common. I would love to not have to carry a laptop around when my phone is more than powerful enough for what I do for work.
yay, locked down unrepairable computers owned by a us company that aids in war and surveillance!
It’s either Linux phone or fighting in the trenches a losing battle against one the most powerful companies in history. Android offering a desktop mode is good if taken in the context of running an open source software on hardware you own.
locked down
How? They allow users to install 3rd party ROMs and GrapheneOS
unrepairable
They’re not the best, but far from the worst. I’ve done multiple repairs on mine without much issue. There are first party parts and guides available on iFixit.
us company
I guess?
aids in war and surveillance!
You’d be hard pressed to find a manufacturer that doesn’t
This feature is a positive change. Enabling people to minimize the number of devices they need has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of ewaste people generate, and makes desktop features more accessible to people who can’t afford multiple devices.
android is pretty locked down, and being locked down further this year to allow only google-sanctioned software. following this trend will see actually unlocked and repairable computers replaced by locked phones. pixels are better than average but not available everywhere.
are the ifixit guides gonna help me replace the busted storage chip that renders my phone unbootable? i can just replace it for cheap on my laptop.
I guess?
Enabling people to minimize the number of devices they need
this is literally the biggest issue here. relying on a country that doles out sanctions and bombings like it’s parking tickets.
and increasing reliance on google and the aforementioned empire for underpowered computing is not a positive at all.
There are a lot of assumptions baked into everything you’re saying. It’s really not that deep. Google Pixels make up a tiny fraction of total mobile market share. This isn’t the start of some doomsday scenario where the only computers available are Google Pixels. You’re allowed to buy what you want. I need a phone anyway. All of them are kinda shit from an openness/repairability standpoint. And personally I’d rather have one device than two if I can.
relying on a country that doles out sanctions and bombings like it’s parking tickets.
This is a much larger issue that has little to do with anything we’re talking about
locked down further this year to allow only google-sanctioned software
This does not apply to GrapheneOS, which again you are allowed to install to these devices. Plus they allow use of the linux terminal which people have been experimenting with to run full linux apps (https://www.androidauthority.com/run-desktop-linux-apps-on-android-how-to-3586539/)
I have a 9a running Graphene and with a “usb C laptop dock” I can use it in “desktop mode”, but I would warn that it is still EXTREMELY buggy and finnicky.
Still neat though.
You’re probably not on the latest release then.
This used to be exciting stuff about ten years ago when some of us still thought Google was doing cool things.
Your Pixel
Limited to Pixel 8 and newer devices and no 4k yet.
Oh, so your Pixel, but not my Pixel.
Our Pixel ⚒️🎵
Let’s be clear, for a feature that Samsung phones have had for a decade at this point.
This feature debuted on the Moto Atrix in 2011. There was even a version of Ubuntu that could use the feature.
They sure did have a version of it. But you had to run their privacy nightmare app suite on their mutilated android OS. So no one cared or cares.
The 4 (iirc) also had USBC video out but google removed that functionality only to now have a reason to sell you a new phone. I hope its actually good and they publish source for it as part of AOSP, otherwise this news is fucking useless.
sad pixel 5 noises
I’ve been waiting for a camera bump free upgrade, the 10a might be it but I’m reluctant to continue up the phone size escalator.
My guy if you use that phone for anything remotely sensitive you should get a new one. It hasn’t received security updates in over 2 years. The 8a is about $200 refurbished with 6 more years of updates and you won’t notice the bump if you use a case.
I don’t use a case and I use Lineage. I’m not really concerned. I already need to crop the top of the screen in developer settings just so that I can reach the notification bar, I’m not really enthusiastic about getting something even bigger.
I’m not sure if lineage has this option, but on my Pixel 8, at least, there’s an option in system -> gestures called One-handed mode. If you use gesture navigation, it lets you swipe down on the navigation bar to either drag the top of the screen into reach or open the notification drawer. You can also map it to the accessibility button (and put it in the navigation bar) if you use the 3-button navigation.
I’m sure you’re content with your solution, but I just wanted to throw this out here in case you wanted to try something new. .
Yeah I’ve tried those but it seems like such a hack. Weirdly, the one handed “pull screen into reach” doesn’t allow you to swipe down across the notifications bar to open notifications, in that mode it only registers swipes that start from below the notifications bar. And the floating button gets a little unwieldy since it overlaps with the volume popup. And in the “show notifications” mode, the button opens notifications but doesn’t let you close them (once you press it twice for the “control center” it no longer does anything)
Not to mention it doesn’t really help with the phone itself being uncomfortable to hold. I’m trying my best to vote with my wallet, but that has meant sticking with a Pixel 2 up until a few years ago, and the Pixel 5 was my “only 2mm taller” compromise - I completely overlooked the fact that the Pixel 2 screen starts like 1cm from the top while the Pixel 5 screen starts nearly at the top. The Pixel 10a is almost 10mm taller, so I’m not sure if I’ll be sold on it.
I actually bought a OnePlus 6 something (t?) at one point fully intending to give in to a bigger screen but I hated it and returned it.
Yeah, I have a pixel 7 and was disappointed on vacation to learn that its USB-C port can’t do video when I wanted to plug it into a hotel room TV.
I don’t get why this is a Pixel thing at all and not an Android thing though. Shouldn’t any Android OS device that can do full video output over USB-C be able to do this?
Shouldn’t any Android OS device that can do full video output over USB-C be able to do this?
It will eventually. Pixels are usually the first ones to get everything because they are first-party devices.
Video out is frustratingly uncommon. Samsung, some Sony’s, and only very recently Pixels. Google was vocally against video out for a long time. And SD cards (gotta pay for drive). You were expected to roll the dice with whether Chromecast works with a random TV and wifi combination.
Pixels were popular for two reasons: the camera and “basic black rectangle” device (RIP Nexus).
Yeah, Chromecast has been kind of a disaster for Google imho, in that it never got widespread adoption in TVs. If they’d pushed an open standard they might’ve been able to get that over the finish-line and get buy-in from 3rd parties. But instead every smart TV and smart phone has its own video streaming approach, it seems.
The LG V20 had it all, still miss daily driving that phone
Not all USB-C are equal. They can add or remove features as they please
Right but I’m specifically referring to devices where their USB-C port is capable of full video out.
It’s supposed to be for Android 16 kn general once the feature is fully baked
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And are there apps for normal desktop office work?
I’m surely not gonna use Google docs or Microsoft’s cloud clobber.
Any apps that are available on Android can be used with desktop mode, including Collabora and OnlyOffice. I assume there will be variable levels of optimization though since this is still so new.
Edit: Forgot to mention that you should also be able to run linux apps https://www.androidauthority.com/run-desktop-linux-apps-on-android-how-to-3586539/
So new, as in, it has been available forever, just not on google phones. But every other manufacturer has done it at one point or another in the last ten years if not more.
Anyone know if this works with GrapheneOS? I haven’t tested this in a very long time and then I was on stock. Android.
It does in fact work with GOS. I don’t believe this build has been released yet though so you likely still need to toggle it on in the dev settings.
It works fine enough. It’s not going to replace my desktop PC any time soon but it helps a lot for anything involving word processing/documents, as well as gaming on TVs and monitors.
I last tried out the beta version of it on Graphene a couple of months back and it was rough. In fairness though, I was mostly using it to figure out how to use it to install a full fat Linux distro, which is probably a niche use.
My phone’s just updated, so I’ll give it another spin when I get home tonight and report back.
So sort of like the Continuum mode that Windows Phones had, like, ten years ago?
Like desktop mode on Librem5 in 2020, convergence on PinePhone from 2021, or Samsung Dex from a few years ago, too.
And every Ubuntu Touch device with support for external monitors for the last ten years or so. Here’s a demonstration running on a Fairphone 4.
Oh the Motorola Atrix from like, 2014? I still have the lapdock. Used it with an original RPi for a while to make a terrible laptop.
Wiki says the model is from 2011, and all that functionality was implemented on Android 2.3.x, impressive! Google is only 14 versions behind.
Literally every Samsung Android phone has come with their Dex desktop for like 10 years too.
I fucking hate Google at this point. They’re just an even shittier version of apple now. Locking down their shit for no reason, and claiming decades old innovations are actually new and theirs.
Brother, Apple wrote that playbook 🤣
Yes, but even a diamond encrusted turd still gets flushed, diamonds and all.
It works okay, but not great for me. I toss my phone on one of my old laptops docking station at work, but some apps like to force a shit resolution. It is pretty neat having them in moveable windows though.
Have you used the latest version?
I haven’t used it in the past few months, I’ll definitely give it another try though.
Edit: Oh, yeah this is a bit different. I like the new prompt asking if it’s extended or desktop. I will definitely have to play with it a bit more, I had tossed it to the back of my brain as a ‘well it exists’ feature.
For some reason, I thought this was already possible and it was something I was jealous of as an iPhone user.
Samsung S devices have Dex (desktop mode) for years now
Must be what I’m thinking of.
Yeah, I stumbled over that when I wanted to charge my phone while I’m away in a meeting. Plugged it into the USB-C at my desk, suddenly the content of my phone opened up on my two office monitors, lol.
it was, just in an early state under the developer settings
And a monitor that supports usb-c, I assume.
Or just a converter from USB-C to whatever you have on your current screen.
DisplayLink. The Dell box I use to hotdesk my office laptop by day also works as a KVM on my pixel 9a. I get power, monitor, keyboard, mouse and ethernet on one cable.
It’s good for watching movies.
Do you mean DisplayPort?
No, that’s different. Displaylink is basically KVM over USB-C.
No. DisplayLink is video out over a regular USB protocol/connection, not “alt mode”. It’s for when you don’t have true video out. It’s compressed to hell and stupid.
I think you mean DP Alt Mode.
As far as i know, display link requires software not available on the pixel, so you must be using display port and confusing both. Display port supports all the things you said
I’ve been waiting for this for a while. Is it really “stable” though? There’s very limited info on this but what little there is seems to suggest it’s not ready.
I love this! Wish iPhone would have this feature.
If so, I could do all my work with just my iPhone.
I have a 15, and will hold out on a new iPhone for at least 4-5 years. I may go longer if there is not a desktop mode by then though.
iPhones will never have it for the same reason that iPads will never have proper window management and MacBooks will never have touchscreens.
This comment gave me flashbacks to when I tried to use a cheap external touchscreen monitor plugged into an old macbook pro with a singular usb-c cable. It “worked” but the ux was a disaster
