Android Nougat review: split screen support with app resizing will be great for large screen devices, and the design of new notification panel is very efficient
Big smartphones are everywhere, and Nougat's new features make them more useful. — After a lengthy Developer Preview program starting …
Context & Ripple Effects
Nougat closes a loop that opened in March, when Google shipped the Android N developer preview with split-screen multitasking and bundled notifications as an OTA to testers. Ars Technica's hands-ons at the time flagged the customization and notification work; this review judges the finished system — and its verdict centers on what split screen plus app resizing does for large phones and tablets like the Pixel C.
The timing matters because Google released Nougat from beta the same day, rolling it first to select Nexus devices and the Pixel C while warning that wider roll-out may take weeks. So the review lands while most supported-phone owners are still waiting, and while device makers decide how quickly to push it themselves.
First-order effects
- Nexus and Pixel C owners get a materially more capable OS today: two apps on screen at once with resizable panes, plus a denser, more efficient notification panel — the features Ars judged most valuable on big screens.
- App developers whose software wasn't built for arbitrary window sizes now face users actually running their apps side-by-side, making resize behavior a visible quality bar rather than an edge case.
Second-order effects
- Phone makers selling large-screen devices gain a software argument for hardware they already ship — big displays stop being just about video and become a multitasking selling point they can market against rivals stuck on older Android versions.
- Because Google's own roll-out stretches over weeks, fragmentation widens in the short term: reviewers and buyers will compare split-screen-capable flagships against identical hardware still waiting on the update.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, multi-window stops being a tablet-only curiosity and becomes a baseline Android expectation that every future release must preserve — a line you can trace forward to Pie's continued investment in notification management and one-handed usability in The Verge's 2018 review.
- For Google, shipping major UI rework through a public developer-preview cycle — preview in March, release in August — hardens into the template for how Android evolves: features validated by enthusiasts before ordinary users ever see them.
The trend: Android is evolving from a single-app phone OS into a windowed environment tuned for ever-larger screens, with Google using public developer previews to de-risk each step.