It Happened! Android 16’s Desktop Mode is Built on Samsung DeX!

If you’ve been wanting Android to adopt features of Samsung’s desktop mode, Dex, then the next big release has a surprise for you.

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Links
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Small to Big Screens – https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/05/adaptiveapps-io25.html

Video Description
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Android may finally get the Desktop Mode that everyone wants with the help of Samsung. As the company has just confirmed its enhanced desktop windowing capabilities of Android 16 is all thanks to a collaboration between the two companies.

Google I/O 2025 is this week, and we’ve been hearing about a lot of great changes coming to Android this year. Desktop Mode seems to be a big focus of Android 16 and anyone who has gotten familiar with Samsung DeX is likely to feel right at home.

#android #android16 #samsungdex

Android 16 Desktop Mode
Since Android 10, Google has been experimenting with ways to implement a Desktop Mode within the operating system. This started with basic multi-display and freeform windowing support but we’ve only really seen this as a feature only included in the beta. . .or one that was for developer testing only.

And while all of this was going on, Samsung introduced DeX, its desktop mode feature with the launch of the Galaxy S8. . .which launched with Android 7.

Each year, Samsung has continued its work with DeX and they’ve done a fantastic job as it’s consistently been the point of comparison when it comes to what Google has been working on. . .or any other Android OEM for that matter.

So each year, when Google would talk about the latest additions to Desktop Mode that they’ve been working on.
The community would consistently tell them that Samsung’s method is better and that Google should just license that from Samsung.

And while it doesn’t seem to have happened exactly like that, we are now being told the Desktop Mode feature shipping with Android 16 is actually built on the foundation of Samsung DeX.

Sadly, we didn’t learn any additional technical details about this feature during the dedicated Android Show. . .or even during the Google I/O Keynote speech.

But this tidbit is exactly what so many of us within the community has been begging for Google to implement.
The next step is to finally let the Android beta community to test out this feature.

We’re even seeing Samsung talk about the One UI 8 update with its redesigned DeX platform. Now that it’s actually able to leverage the new work Google has put into Android 16.

conclusion
We’re seeing Google getting more determined to have Android developer properly design their apps with different size screens in mind.
Not just the regular smartphone form factor either.

We’re talking about small smartwatch screens, larger tablet screens, and much bigger TVs or monitors that will be used with this new feature of Android 16.

Android is expanding its reach beyond the typical smartphone so developers getting their apps ready for yet another one of these big pushes is something that can really make the user experience much more enjoyable.

Summary
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1. Intro [00:00]
2. Android 16 Desktop Mode is Build on the Foundation of DeX [00:40]
3. Conclusion [02:56]

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