Android 15 Could Compete With Samsung's Coolest Feature: Here's How

Over the past few years, the relationship between Google and Samsung has become increasingly close. Now, an update coming to Android 15 shows that the search giant might be developing a feature that competes directly with one of Samsung's best features for its Galaxy devices. 

For decades, we've dreamed of a world where tiny pocket computers could replace the ones on our desks. Many companies have tried to come close, including Samsung and its Galaxy phones which have a technology called DeX. This feature projects a desktop environment onto a monitor or TV when a supported Galaxy phone is connected via HDMI or wirelessly through a standard like Miracast. Now, it looks like Google intends to offer a similar feature across all Android devices.

On April 11, Google released the first public pre-release beta version of Android 15, ahead of its expected release this fall. Among features designed to help improve Android's NFC capabilities and make apps look better on the screen, some testers have found a hidden desktop mode that wasn't included in the official list of Android 15 features. The new desktop mode could lead more Android devices to compete head-to-head with Samsung DeX.

While this is exciting for some, it's important to remember beta software isn't ready for the public. Companies often include ideas they want to test, but ultimately cut as the final release window approaches. That particularly happens if the software teams can't make it work well enough for the rest of us to use.

DeX mode is one of the best hidden Samsung Galaxy features you never knew about. You activate DeX by plugging a supported phone into an external monitor and a desktop environment launches on-screen with a ChromeOS-esque taskbar along the bottom. Apps run in windowed mode, and your phone's screen can function as both a trackpad and keyboard. 

It's possible Google might take the idea behind DeX even further but for now, it's rather nascent, according to people who have spent time digging into the test software including at Android Authority. Google's version appears to offer similar functionality to open apps in windows, but there's no taskbar along the bottom and no mouse-friendly quick settings shortcuts either. It looks a lot more like Samsung's New DeX for tablets, which had major frustrations and improvements.

As this is only test software, this feature may get more development attention before the full release of Android 15 later this year. But it's not clear if desktop mode is even intended for the public. Google's included less robust forms of this functionality for developers before.

If Google releases this desktop mode to the public, it'd give those who don't use Samsung phones the ability to have a similar experience. In its current form, DeX has limited functionality in part because app developers tend to focus on features for all phones, not just Samsung's.

This has happened before. When Google developed Nearby Share, an AirDrop style feature that allowed users to quickly send files between devices, Samsung created a competing feature called Quick Share just for Galaxy devices. The two features eventually came together, and Samsung's QuickShare was coming to all Android phones (sort of). Were the two companies to take a similar approach with Android's desktop mode, that could mean the end of DeX.

For the subset of Android users who are Samsung power users invested in the Galaxy ecosystem, DeX is a familiar feature with years of development behind it. For now, we'll have to wait to see if Google plans to catch up.