This has been hidden in developer options for a while now, but they’re now releasing it officially. Limited to Pixel 8 and newer devices and no 4k yet.
Your Pixel
Limited to Pixel 8 and newer devices and no 4k yet.
Oh, so your Pixel, but not my Pixel.
Let’s be clear, for a feature that Samsung phones have had for a decade at this point.
This feature debuted on the Moto Atrix in 2011. There was even a version of Ubuntu that could use the feature.
They sure did have a version of it. But you had to run their privacy nightmare app suite on their mutilated android OS. So no one cared or cares.
Yeah, I have a pixel 7 and was disappointed on vacation to learn that its USB-C port can’t do video when I wanted to plug it into a hotel room TV.
I don’t get why this is a Pixel thing at all and not an Android thing though. Shouldn’t any Android OS device that can do full video output over USB-C be able to do this?
Not all USB-C are equal. They can add or remove features as they please
Right but I’m specifically referring to devices where their USB-C port is capable of full video out.
sad pixel 5 noises
I’ve been waiting for a camera bump free upgrade, the 10a might be it but I’m reluctant to continue up the phone size escalator.
My guy if you use that phone for anything remotely sensitive you should get a new one. It hasn’t received security updates in over 2 years. The 8a is about $200 refurbished with 6 more years of updates and you won’t notice the bump if you use a case.
I don’t use a case and I use Lineage. I’m not really concerned. I already need to crop the top of the screen in developer settings just so that I can reach the notification bar, I’m not really enthusiastic about getting something even bigger.
Our Pixel ⚒️🎵
The 4 (iirc) also had USBC video out but google removed that functionality only to now have a reason to sell you a new phone. I hope its actually good and they publish source for it as part of AOSP, otherwise this news is fucking useless.
Yep. Pixel 7P over here really bummed that this isn’t available because of poor choices Google made at the hardware level on this phone.
deleted by creator
This used to be exciting stuff about ten years ago when some of us still thought Google was doing cool things.
I think it is just supposed to be Samsung DeX
Why say “Your Pixel can now…” when my Pixel can’t? Why not say “Pixel 8 and newer devices can now…”.
JTskulk, it is only your Pixel that can not. It works for older Pixels as well, but they specifically tied a few kill switches to your commonly known geo-locations and anyone who ties their shoelaces in a fashion deemed less mertiable.
their shoelaces in a fashion deemed less mertiable
Ian Knot ftw. Can’t beat it.
I have to deduct a merit for myself, as I now see I spelled meritable with a typo.
lol, love you 😄
Jokes on them, I wear velcro shoes!
I knew it!
Yeah meanwhile I was over in the corner trying to figure out how all my laces are tangled in the Velcro of my roller blades. I swear whoever designed Velcro and laces to exist on the same contraption was just trying to be a dick
LOL, sorry bud, but it’s only YOUR laces that get caught in Velcro. Other people’s laces are Velcro-resistant. Your rollerblade manufacturer is just fucking with you.
damn, I knew there was an alterior motive to the knee pads, no one liked those things.
So sort of like the Continuum mode that Windows Phones had, like, ten years ago?
Like desktop mode on Librem5 in 2020, convergence on PinePhone from 2021, or Samsung Dex from a few years ago, too.
Literally every Samsung Android phone has come with their Dex desktop for like 10 years too.
I fucking hate Google at this point. They’re just an even shittier version of apple now. Locking down their shit for no reason, and claiming decades old innovations are actually new and theirs.
i hope it comes to graphene os
Samsung has been doing this with Dex for many years ffs.
Yes. And now it’s native in all android! Samsung helped make it!
It’s good when things get better.
A PC where I can’t install what I want? WTF is the point of that bullshit.
Thanks but I’ll stick to my steam deck for my portable Linux computing needs where I can do what the hell I want.
I guess we’ll see how that goes come September timeframe.
I’m sure it’ll go pretty well on GrapheneOS
deleted by creator
locked down
How? They allow users to install 3rd party ROMs and GrapheneOS
unrepairable
They’re not the best, but far from the worst. I’ve done multiple repairs on mine without much issue. There are first party parts and guides available on iFixit.
us company
I guess?
aids in war and surveillance!
You’d be hard pressed to find a manufacturer that doesn’t
This feature is a positive change. Enabling people to minimize the number of devices they need has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of ewaste people generate, and makes desktop features more accessible to people who can’t afford multiple devices.
deleted by creator
There are a lot of assumptions baked into everything you’re saying. It’s really not that deep. Google Pixels make up a tiny fraction of total mobile market share. This isn’t the start of some doomsday scenario where the only computers available are Google Pixels. You’re allowed to buy what you want. I need a phone anyway. All of them are kinda shit from an openness/repairability standpoint. And personally I’d rather have one device than two if I can.
relying on a country that doles out sanctions and bombings like it’s parking tickets.
This is a much larger issue that has little to do with anything we’re talking about
locked down further this year to allow only google-sanctioned software
This does not apply to GrapheneOS, which again you are allowed to install to these devices. Plus they allow use of the linux terminal which people have been experimenting with to run full linux apps (https://www.androidauthority.com/run-desktop-linux-apps-on-android-how-to-3586539/)
It’s either Linux phone or fighting in the trenches a losing battle against one the most powerful companies in history. Android offering a desktop mode is good if taken in the context of running an open source software on hardware you own.
deleted by creator
Imagine what the world could be if we had repairable Arch Linux Phones that can go full desktop mode just like the pixel rn. Aaahhh that turns me on!🤤
Arch user btw
There is no such thing as an Android PC.
Now there is
Sorry, I was being snarky. What I meant was that a computer running Android (or iOS) can’t really be counted as a PC, in the sense that Google (or Apple) control what you do with it.
No, it’s a phone with a monitor and keyboard. As far as I’m concerned a Chromebook is also not a PC, it’s a phone that’s shaped like a laptop.
That’s certainly an opinion.
I consider my phone to be a PC, and my work phone not to be, because one is clearly a personal computer, and the other a work computer.
brb… need to go send an email from the WC
A Chromebook has literally no phone related functionality. No SMS or calling.
I’ve bought 1920x1200 IPS screen from temu. It is small, runs off the phone (if you want) power and works brilliantly. I’m using Windows RDP to use my desktop anywhere I want in the house. Works great for a few month, I had lower resolution for a couple updates, but the current version running on Android 17 Beta2 works just fine, at full resolution.
Could you link the screen from temu?
I have a 9a running Graphene and with a “usb C laptop dock” I can use it in “desktop mode”, but I would warn that it is still EXTREMELY buggy and finnicky.
Still neat though.
And a monitor that supports usb-c, I assume.
Or just a converter from USB-C to whatever you have on your current screen.
DisplayLink. The Dell box I use to hotdesk my office laptop by day also works as a KVM on my pixel 9a. I get power, monitor, keyboard, mouse and ethernet on one cable.
It’s good for watching movies.
Do you mean DisplayPort?
No, that’s different. Displaylink is basically KVM over USB-C.
As far as i know, display link requires software not available on the pixel, so you must be using display port and confusing both. Display port supports all the things you said
And are there apps for normal desktop office work?
I’m surely not gonna use Google docs or Microsoft’s cloud clobber.
Any apps that are available on Android can be used with desktop mode, including Collabora and OnlyOffice. I assume there will be variable levels of optimization though since this is still so new.
Edit: Forgot to mention that you should also be able to run linux apps https://www.androidauthority.com/run-desktop-linux-apps-on-android-how-to-3586539/
So new, as in, it has been available forever, just not on google phones. But every other manufacturer has done it at one point or another in the last ten years if not more.
Yeah I’m not very familiar with the android landscape since everything that’s not GrapheneOS is a total shitshow. Sounds like app optimization may be less of a concern than I anticipated, that’s great
For some reason, I thought this was already possible and it was something I was jealous of as an iPhone user.
it was, just in an early state under the developer settings
