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As we all know, back in June of this year, Google not only officially released the Android 16 operating system but also made it clear during the I/O developer conference that it would use Samsung’s DeX desktop mode as the underlying foundation to build a more powerful next‑generation desktop mode for Android 16. Then, at the end of September, Google once again announced that it would officially launch a new “Android computer operating system” for the PC market in 2026.

Although we can’t experience the real Android PC operating system just yet, we can get a sneak peek at some brand‑new system interactions from the latest OneUI 8.0. In this video, I’ll share my experience with the new DeX desktop mode based on Android 16 – what new interactions does it bring?

First, the entire UI has been redesigned. Compared to the older version, the new DeX desktop not only lets you place app icons and file shortcuts but also allows you to add widgets to the desktop.

Next, the taskbar has changed. In the old DeX, the leftmost part of the taskbar was the app drawer button – tapping it opened a full‑screen, horizontally scrolling app list. In the new DeX, the app drawer button has been moved to the center of the taskbar, and tapping it opens a pop‑up style vertical scrolling list.

Then, the “Recent Tasks” button on the far left: the old DeX used a horizontal tile‑style layout, while the new DeX has changed to a vertical scrolling mode with larger thumbnail previews.

Also, the “Notification Center” and “Control Center” on the far right of the taskbar have been visually unified with the mobile version. The new DeX also adds a screen‑recording function while in DeX mode.

In terms of multi‑window interaction: In the old DeX, to enter split‑screen mode, you dragged a window to the edge of the screen. The new DeX builds on this by adding a pop‑up button to the top‑left corner of each window. Clicking it gives three options – align left, align right, or send the current app window to your phone to continue operating. Meanwhile, a true full‑screen button has been added to the top‑right corner of app windows. This is very useful because in the old DeX many apps didn’t support true full‑screen – even after clicking the full‑screen button, a window title bar remained at the top. Now, the new DeX achieves truly immersive full‑screen display.

Beyond these UI changes and feature upgrades, the new DeX also introduces differentiated functions between phones and tablets. On the phone side, two new features have been added:

• External display rotation – you can switch a horizontal external display to portrait mode.
• Mouse pointer crossing – you can freely move the mouse pointer between the external monitor and the phone screen, allowing one set of keyboard and mouse to control both the phone system and the desktop system simultaneously. You can also adjust the relative left/right positions of the monitor and phone in settings to match your personal preference.

For tablets, the new DeX brings even more interaction upgrades:

• When using the tablet alone, opening an app makes it full‑screen. Tapping the top button lets you change it to a floating window or split‑screen mode.
• In the recent tasks list, a new “Add to Desktop” button appears on the far right. Tapping it switches to the multi‑window DeX mode. Then, tapping any app icon on the desktop opens that app in a floating window.
• When connecting the tablet to an external monitor, it launches the same new DeX mode as on phones, plus two additional features:
  1. In the recent tasks list, a “Add Virtual Desktop” function lets you create multiple virtual desktops, each running different sets of app windows.
  2. An even more practical feature (which I strongly suggest other manufacturers learn from): when you open an app window on the new DeX desktop, you can drag it with the mouse pointer and move that window onto the tablet’s screen. This is exactly the extended‑display interaction logic of a PC with an external monitor – far better than many tablets that only offer mirroring.

That’s all for my hands‑on experience with the new DeX desktop mode in OneUI 8.0!

It’s worth noting that while these features have been released alongside Android 16, it’s unknown when domestic (Chinese) manufacturers will roll them out. This new desktop system is a collaboration between Samsung and Google. Although Samsung has officially released it, Google is still in internal testing – currently only available for beta testers on Google’s own Pixel phones and tablets. It’s estimated that after Google finishes its internal testing, the feature will be packaged and released into the open‑source AOSP. At that stage, any domestic ROM based on Android 16 that hasn’t stripped out the native desktop mode should theoretically be able to seamlessly upgrade to this new desktop mode.

So that’s it for this video. Welcome to follow Yidian.