Google’s Android operating system has had native support for multi-window features for a few years, allowing you to view two apps on the same screen. But now that multi-display/foldable display devices are on the horizon, it looks like Google is going to make multitasking on Android work a little more like it does on desktop operating systems.
That’s thanks to a new “multi-resume” feature coming to Android Q.
Up until now Android would generally let you see two apps at once, but you couldn’t necessarily interact with them both simultaneously. That’s because only one app is activate at any given time, and the other is paused.
You can tap on the paused app to “resume” using it at a moment’s notice. But you might not see the latest incoming messages or videos might stop playing.
The next version of Android will support “multi-resume,” which Google says will allow “device manufacturers to keep all apps resumed in multi-windows.”
In other words you might not see this on every phone at launch. It might not work with every app initially either — developers need to add a line of code in order to opt-in.
That makes sense, since there are some apps that probably don’t need to be active all the time in order to be useful. Forcing every single app that’s opened in multi-window mode to be in a resumed state could unnecessarily drain your battery or tax your system resources. But it also means that, at least at first, you may note that some apps won’t behave as expected in multi-window mode.
While multi-resume was clearly designed specifically for new types of devices such as foldables, it could also come in handy for phones and tablets with screens that are large enough to let you comfortably view multiple apps at once.
via xda-developers
It wont be an effective multi-tasking system until there is a capable task-manager, which lets you see what apps are running, how much resource they are taking up, and easily allocate priorities or resources for different tasks – and android is nowhere is nowhere close at the moment, even if Linux has the tools.
Well, that sucks.
….the option should go to the user, and not the developer!
App Developers already proved their nepotism already, especially on Android. The solution is either an Iron Fist like Apple, or to hack the pants out of it. Pick your poison.
I’m not sure nepotism is the word to use here, how exactly do developers favour family and friends?
Laziness or a fear of breakages is understandable though and I do agree that this should be at least a toggle-able developer option.
I used the term somewhat ironically, the developers become increasingly lazy and the platform/Google rewards them further and further. Maybe I should’ve used the term complacency.
There’s a huge majority of Applications created on Windows via Emulation, and published without testing on a physical hardware. At the minimum, they should be testing it on the top popular devices and SkinnedOS.
Developers as such can’t get far in the Apple Ecosystem. Google doesn’t work the same way, as the more you post/the bigger your presence. Especially if they’re ad-based revenue.