Google is preparing big upgrades for Android's taskbar

Android's taskbar for large screen devices debuted in Android 12L, but its current UI and functionality has changed significantly since then. For starters, the initial release of Android 13 brought an app drawer and context-menu support to the taskbar. Then in Android 13 QPR2, Google made the taskbar transient so it's hidden by default until the user swipes up. Continuing this trend, Google is preparing several major changes to the taskbar in Android 14, which I'll highlight below.

First, Android 14 is finally preparing to add a search bar to the taskbar! This search bar, as shown in the video above, would let you quickly find an app to launch. This could be useful if you have hundreds of apps installed, as many stock launcher apps (like the Pixel Launcher) don't let you hide apps or create folders in the app drawer. A flag for this feature has been around since Android 13, but it's only recently started working for me in current Android 14 builds. It's also worth noting that the taskbar's search bar can only currently search through your apps and not anything else on your device or on the web. It also disappointingly lacks integration with the yet-to-be-released "Quick Launch" feature, which would let you launch an app by typing only a few characters and then pressing "enter". This feature is not yet enabled, though, so it's possible things could change.

Second, Android 14 may also add support for showing recent apps in the taskbar. Code for this feature was first added in Android 13 QPR1, but it's currently unfinished. The feature is disabled entirely right now, as apparently, it should only be enabled "in [the] desktop environment." Separately, Google has been working on revamping Android's desktop mode feature, with rumors pointing to the Pixel 8 finally supporting display output. Thus, it's possible that with the launch of Android's new desktop mode, the taskbar (when in desktop mode) will show recent apps. It would be nice if you could show recent apps on the taskbar without entering desktop mode, though I can see how that wouldn't work well with the more compact, centered transient taskbar UI. But this could be solved by:

Third, Android 14 could let you switch between the old persistent taskbar and the new transient taskbar. If you long-press on an empty spot of the taskbar, you'll be able to switch between the transient taskbar and the new transient taskbar at any time. This isn't enabled by default right now, but it would let you hide the taskbar by default when you don't need to do any heavy multitasking but show it persistently when you do, making things like dragging and dropping apps into split-screen or launching a saved app pair much easier. The old persistent taskbar takes up the entire width of the screen, and there's a lot of empty space that could be used for showing recent apps.

Seeing as we're on the cusp of Android 14's first release and none of these features are enabled already, I suspect the earliest we'll see them is in Android 14 QPR1 (ie. the Pixel's December 2023 Feature Drop). Desktop mode certainly won't be landing until then, assuming the rumors about the Pixel 8 supporting display output are true. I'll let you know if/when these features land.

Quick shout out to Patron Anh Nguyen for inspiring this post. They lamented in a comment about the Pixel Fold not having a search bar in the taskbar, which reminded me of the flag that Google added for such a feature a while back. I then tested it out and decided to write up a summary of all the upcoming/in-development taskbar changes. If you have a question/comment about any Android feature, do let me know - sometimes your feedback leads me to discover something like this!