Android 15 launch is right around the corner as per Google’s own release timeline and new leaks have been revealing features coming in the update, ahead of the launch. A new leaks reveals what’s called a Taskbar that could be coming to phones with the Android 15 update, a feature that’s seen on tablets and foldables.
The Taskbar feature was first introduced for large screen devices back in 2022 with Android 12L. It was a permanent feature that was always visible to the user. With Android 13, the taskbar became hide-able and then later with another release of Android 13, the taskbar would hide automatically after appearing for a short period of time.
However, these were characteristics of the taskbar found in Android tablets and foldables. With Android 15, the taskbar could make its way to the smartphones as well, but in a “tiny” format, as suggested by Android Authority. This will be a smaller version of the taskbar that will be coming for Android tablets and foldables, but would be optimised for smartphones. Further, this taskbar won’t require the user to tinker around with the display settings to enable it.
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As shown by the publication in a video, “the “tiny” taskbar looks and behaves exactly the same as the taskbar for large-screen devices.” It would potentially allow for better and more convenient multi-tasking and quick launching of apps. However, its unclear whether brands like Samsung, Oppo, and OnePlus would integrate this feature, considering they already have what’s called a smart sidebar or ‘edge panel’ in Samsung’s case, which enable a similar functionality as the “tiny taskbar.”
Meanwhile, a recent report suggests that Google’s upcoming Pixel 9 series won’t launch with Android 15 preloaded. Google, in its history of Pixel devices, has never launched the device with an older version of Android and if the leak is true, it would be the first time Google would ever do so. This is surprising, considering the launch of Android 15 is quite close and it was expected that it will be released alongside Pixel 9 series, coming preloaded on the devices.