There's a reason why the word tablet is synonymous with iPad. Every year, Apple has been making small tweaks to the user interface of iPadOS—its tablet operating system—to optimize the experience of using it on a big screen: two-column views, a persistent taskbar, and cursor support, not to mention the respectable number of first- and third-party apps that make use of the extra space. You won't find the same refinements on tablets running Google's Android.
Most Android tablets feel like a blown-up version of an Android smartphone, and Google's interest in optimizing the experience has waxed and waned over the years. There was Android Honeycomb in 2011, which had resizable widgets; and Android Nougat in 2016 added the ability to split-screen apps for easier multitasking. Now, there's Android 12L and Android 13. The latter is currently in beta, but both bring the biggest changes we've ever seen to the interface.
Why now? There are almost 270 million active large-screen mobile devices running Android. But this shift to create a better Android tablet experience feels like a reaction to the huge growth in the computer industry that came during the pandemic, due to the demand for screens for remote work and virtual schooling. In 2019 manufacturers shipped roughly 144 million tablets, but this spiked to 163 million in 2020 and 168 million in 2021, according to IDC.
Tabula Rasa
Android 12L, introduced as a beta late in 2021, creates a refreshed interface for large-screen devices. With wider screens, you'll now see separate columns in the notification drawer; there's now a persistent taskbar at the bottom of the screen that lets you quickly open apps in split-screen mode; and apps will automatically adapt to make use of the extra screen space. It's expected to make its way to more devices this summer.
These improvements carry over to Android 13, which is expected to launch even later. The upcoming version adds even more for tablets, like better stylus support and palm rejection, optimized screen savers and new widgets, plus faster and more efficient profile switching, making it easier to switch the tablet to your kid's account when you hand it off to them. Android 13 will also make it easier to have multiple instances of the same app open simultaneously.
Scott Blanksteen, senior director of product management at Google, says demand and usage of tablets have been increasing for both productivity and entertainment, and that's why Google rushed to make Android 12L instead of waiting to roll these tablet enhancements into Android 13. This slightly faster track might mean that more devices will deploy Android 12L before the end of the year, whereas Android 13 will likely land on most tablets in 2023, given how long it takes companies like Samsung and Lenovo to roll out Android updates.
Apps are a major part of this refocus on tablets too. “App experiences have to be great, and that has to start with Google,” Blanksteen says. It's why the company will be updating more than 20 Google apps with tablet optimizations within the coming weeks, from a redesigned YouTube Music app to a more space-conscious Google Maps app.
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Google says it's working with popular third-party apps to help optimize them for tablets too, including TikTok, Zoom, and Canva, and it's creating guidelines to encourage other developers to rethink their apps for large screens, with suggestions such as adding stylus support. “What we see is this relatively small number of issues or concerns that can have a big impact on user experience and an app's rating,” Blanksteen says.
Speaking of, the Google Play Store will soon see a redesign on tablets too and will include a way to search for tablet-optimized apps. Users can leave reviews for the tablet version separate from the mobile version, making it easier to see distinct ratings.
Other features expected to come later this year in Android 13? The ability to unlock a tablet with a Wear OS smartwatch, automatic audio switching—so your wireless earbuds will switch from phone to tablet when you start playing a movie—and the ability to copy a URL or image on your phone and paste it on your tablet. (Many of these features are already possible on iPads and iPhones, which goes to show how much catching up Google is doing here.)
Roll Out
The biggest barrier to Google's vision is actually rolling these improvements out to the hardware out there. Take a look at Entertainment Space as an example—launched in 2021 for tablets, it replaces the traditional Google Discover feed you'll find left of the main home screen on Android phones. It's a singular place where you can browse and launch media, books, news, and games from a variety of services you've signed into. But while it's available on Lenovo's Tab P11 Plus and Yoga Tab 13, it's not available on Samsung's Galaxy Tab S8. Manufacturers can pick and choose whether or not to add it.
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“Some tablets come with some experiences preloaded and some not,” Blanksteen says. “We are working to make those more easily available to everyone.” Thankfully, most of the changes in Android 12L and Android 13 are system-level and will be available on devices running those versions. But there's a problem here too. Very few of the existing Android tablets today will likely be updated to Android 13. Lenovo, for example, only issues one OS update to its tablets and isn't promising an update to its Tab P11 Plus after Android 12. Samsung is among the few companies promising long software support for its devices. “It is a significant effort to reconfigure and recertify older devices with newer software,” Blanksteen says. “But we think the market dynamics will lead to more and more of this.
Jitesh Ubrani, an analyst at IDC, says that while the firm is already forecasting a minor decline in tablets shipped this year over 2020 and 2021 (and the next few years), there's still an opportunity for Google to make a dent here. “There is some aspect of Google being late to this—the market has moved past peak growth from what we saw in 2020 and 2021. But even though the market is declining, the overall market size is going to be larger than what it was pre-pandemic.”
The problem, Ubrani points out, is just that Android tablets haven't been enticing enough, and they face stiff competition from smartphones and PCs. “Tablets have always been stuck in this middle ground, and that's kind of what's happening right now—they're back to being stuck in this middle ground,” Ubrani says. It doesn't help that the OS hasn't evolved as much either. “It hasn't moved a whole lot when you consider what iPadOS has done,” he says. "Apple has created unique tablet experiences rather than just taking the phone experience and putting it on a larger screen."
We'll have to see if Google's plans for the Android tablet experience will bear fruit. “We want to meet our users where they are and deliver the best experience where they are with the devices they are using every day,” Blanksteen says. Then again, this is essentially what Google said exactly a decade ago, so take it with a grain of salt.