Google’s Tiny Taskbar Is The Multitasking Upgrade We Deserve — If It Ever Shows Up

Google is working on a “tiny taskbar” for Android phones, essentially taking that larger taskbar we’ve seen on tablets and foldable devices, and bringing it to slab-style Android phones. While it’s not yet ready, the taskbar is getting a nice tweak for multitasking.

Essentially, what Google is doing is adding a small carousel of apps to the bottom portion of the screen, right above the taskbar. Think of this as your recent apps menu, but in a smaller form. Making it much easier to switch apps. In fact, this is a change I’d love to see on foldables like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold as well.

Mishaal Rahman from Android Authority was able to get this working somewhat, and you can see what it looks like in the very quick video below.

The new “tiny taskbar” is unlikely to launch with Android 16

While Google has been working on this smaller taskbar, which is being called “tiny taskbar” internally, since last year, it doesn’t appear to be coming in Android 16. There’s been no indication of it being part of Android 16, and Google has already released the final beta for Android 16. However, as Rahman notes, that does not mean Google has given up on the feature.

Quite often we’ll find tidbits of a new feature in Android beta releases, that end up disappearing or get left in the beta, only to redebut on the next version of Android’s beta program. So we could see this new “tiny taskbar” coming with Android 17, or with a Quarterly Platform Release on Android 16 later this year. Google could also opt to keep this for the big redesign that’s coming in the near future with Material 3 Expressive.

This new taskbar would be a welcome addition to slab phones, and we can’t wait to see the finished product from Google.