Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
In summary
- Google recently updated Android to allow apps to be displayed in both left and right layouts.
- This feature supports ‘portrait folding’ devices, such as the upcoming Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
- We’ve discovered code that not only suggests this feature is being tested on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, but also reveals the foldable phone’s screen resolution.
While the small screens of most Android smartphones aren’t exactly suited for multitasking, there are still situations where you might want to have multiple app windows in view. That’s why Google introduced split-screen multitasking in Android 7.0 Nougat in late 2016.
Android’s split-screen mode lets you place two apps side by side, in either a left-right or top-bottom configuration depending on their orientation. For example, if your phone is in portrait mode, Android assumes that you can only place the two apps in a top-bottom configuration. That assumption holds true for the vast majority of Android smartphones on the market, but it doesn’t work for some foldable phones with nearly square aspect ratios. Thankfully, Google quietly updated Android’s split-screen mode to allow apps to be placed in a left-right split even when the device is in portrait mode, presumably in preparation for the launch of its own Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
With the release of Android 14 QPR2 in March, Google introduced code to add support for left-right splits on “portrait foldables.” While these patches don’t explicitly say this feature is coming to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, it’s pretty clear that it is. Nearly every rumor points to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold having a nearly square aspect ratio, and leaked images and renders strongly suggest that is the case.
In addition, searching AOSP for where config_leftRightSplitInPortrait is defined reveals something surprising: a “goldfish” configuration for pixel_fold2 i.e. Pixel Fold 2, which everyone assumed would be the name of Google’s second-generation foldable phone. In Android app development, “goldfish” is one of the targets for which platform developers can compile AOSP builds. Goldfish builds are specifically intended to run in the Android Studio emulator. Goldfish builds essentially help developers mimic the display settings and system configurations of the physical hardware they’re testing apps for, which in this case is the Pixel Fold 2 (which will almost certainly launch as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold).
Given what we know about the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, it’s no surprise that config_leftRightSplitInPortrait be set to “true” on the device. If it were not, users would not be able to split apps left to right in the phone’s default portrait orientation, as demonstrated below.
Another potentially interesting finding from the Pixel Fold 2’s goldfish configuration is the screen resolution. Of the config_display_features value, we can deduce that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s screen resolution will be 2,076 x 2,152 in the default portrait orientation. Due to this, config_leftRightSplitInPortrait must be set to true to ensure the device supports left-right split-screen multitasking in portrait mode.
A left-right split in portrait mode isn’t the only recent improvement Google has made to split-screen mode. In Android 15, the company finally added the ability to save split-screen app pairs to the home screen. And with its work on revamping Android’s desktop mode, Google has significantly improved freeform app windowing, something that offers huge benefits for larger-screen devices like foldable books and tablets.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold will be announced at the upcoming Made by Google 2024 hardware event on August 13, so we’ll have to wait and see if Google has any more multitasking improvements in store.