Here’s a very first look at Android on Microsoft’s dual-screen Surface Duo

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While we saw a lot about the hardware back in October, Microsoft didn’t let anyone play around with the Android software and apps that power the Surface Duo. That’s all changing this week, thanks to Microsoft releasing its Android emulator for developers.

Zac Bowden handled to play around with the emulator and navigation gestures, and Jonas Daehnert– known as PhoneDesigner– has actually overlaid that video onto the Surface Duo itself to give us a much better concept of how these dual screens will work in practice.

In the nearly two minute video you can see how apps and Android’s built-in settings will open on a single screen fullscreen. Microsoft is making it a user option to span the apps across both display screens, and recommending developers to start testing their apps and optimizing them.

While apps and settings menus open fullscreen, you can likewise see how Microsoft is reflowing how pinned apps on the Android home screen period across the two displays. When an app is released, the apps instantly stream onto the opposite screen so you have actually always got access to open more.

Now that designers can begin building Android apps that are optimized for both displays, it will be interested to see just the number of truly make the most of having an extra screen. Android tablet apps have been infamously bad in the past, however Microsoft’s approach implies they’ll mainly just operate on a single screen fullscreen, so you can use them side-by-side. That should, by default, make the experience quite workable out of the box, but there are more complex apps that you ‘d want to cover throughout both displays that will require some work to avoid the joint in the middle.

Designers can download the new Android emulator from Microsoft and begin getting apps all set. We’re likewise expecting Microsoft to information more of its dual-screen plans during a developer webcast next month, and at the company’s Build conference in May.

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