Android 16 makes multitasking easier with Window minimizing

Tablets have big screens that can show multiple apps at once, but Android didn’t always let you resize app windows freely. That changed last December when Google added a desktop windowing feature, allowing tablet users to run several apps in movable windows. At first, this feature was pretty simple and didn’t even have a minimize button. Now, with Android 16 on the way, Google is adding the ability to minimize those windows.

When you turn on desktop windowing mode on a tablet, every app gets a small handle at the top. You can drag this handle to the middle of the screen or tap it and pick the desktop window option from a menu to open the app in a window. Once it’s open, a bar appears at the top with the app’s icon, name, and buttons to maximize or close it.

In the first version of this feature, released with Android 15 QPR1, there was no minimize button. If you wanted an app out of sight, you had to close it completely, which could mean losing your work or progress. This made multitasking tricky. Thankfully, the new Android 16 Beta 3 fixes this by adding a minimize button to the bar. Tap it, and the window hides. You can bring it back later by tapping the app’s icon in the taskbar. The taskbar shows a small sign when the app is minimized and a bigger one when it’s open. If you minimize all apps, Android switches out of desktop mode but keeps them ready to reopen.

There’s a video showing how the new minimize button works in Android 16 Beta 3. Other updates to this feature include letting apps like YouTube shrink into a small picture-in-picture box and allowing you to drag a Chrome tab into its own window. The YouTube option isn’t brand new to Beta 3 but wasn’t there at the start.

The Chrome tab trick was hinted at earlier but needed a setting that wasn’t turned on before. These changes are small but important. They help Android feel more like a desktop system. Google is also working on a new “Desktop View” mode, and adding features like these will make it more useful for tablet users.