34 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 67
ANDROID 10
need a bit more development time and are currently
hidden behind a rather flimsy gate.
Interested? You’ll need to enable Developer options
on your phone. To do this, go to the System menu
in Settings, then About phone, and scroll down to
Build number at the bottom. Tap it seven times, and
a message will appear telling you that you’re now a
developer. Then go back a screen and tap on System,
then Advanced, to see the Developer options menu.
Most of toggles inside are related to app
development and won’t be of much use, but a few of
them offer a sneak peek at what’s to come...- Desktop mode
Today’s high-end Android phones are basically as
powerful as a laptop, so it only makes sense that we’d
be able to use them like one. We’ve already seen
PC-style interfaces with Samsung’s DeX, and now
Google is working on a desktop modes. As it stands,
the Force desktop mode toggle doesn’t do anything
without an Android Debug Bridge (ADB) command,
so it isn’t usable unless you’re a developer. However,
from what we’ve seen in demo videos, Desktop
mode will be a full-sized Android experience for
external monitors. That means there will be a dock,
floating windows, mouse support, and drag-and-drop
capabilities, all powered by your phone. - Bubbles
If you’ve ever wished Facebook’s chat heads concept
could be applied to more than just Messenger,
you’re going to love Android’s Bubbles, which was