Android 14 beta 2 has been released, bringing a number of new features that could be included in all Android phones in a stable release later this year. One such feature, spotted by journalist Mishaal Rahman, is the ability to save pairs of apps to make split-screen multitasking a little easier.

According to Rahman's tweet, a new launcher flag has been added to Android, offering a new "save app pairs" option for use in split-screen mode. Unfortunately, this feature does not work right now, so how Google will implement it is a matter of speculation.

Thankfully, Samsung and Microsoft already offer this feature on their Android devices. This means that we can speculate on what Google plans to do. In both cases, creating a pair of apps means creating a shortcut to open both apps simultaneously in split-screen mode, saving the time and effort required to manually open both apps.

Perhaps Google will offer something similar as part of Android 14. This would not only benefit their own large screen devices like the Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet, but would also mean that other Android phone manufacturers would be able to take advantage of such features without having to develop them themselves.

Note that Google has already overhauled split-screen mode with the release of Android 12; as Rahman points out, the OS creates its own internal app pair whenever two apps are opened side by side, and users can open them from the Recents menu by clicking Split-screen windows can be opened.

The only real change here is that these pairs will be able to save themselves and perhaps be launched from a shortcut on the home screen.

Expect a different development this year. Google is launching its own large-screen devices, prompting it to optimize both Android and many key apps. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason why it cannot offer better split-screen multitasking. Even more so when one remembers that this is not a particularly new concept.

We'll just have to wait and see how this plays out over the next few months; we don't know when Android 14 will be released to the public, but according to Google's release calendar, at least three more beta versions will be released between now and the end of July According to Google's release calendar, at least three more beta versions will be released between now and the end of July.

Android 13 was launched last August, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that this will be a repeat of that launch, but we won't know for sure until Google actually tells us. Until then, be sure to check out our Android 14 hub for the latest news and features.