Android 14 greatly speeds up multitasking on tablets

Summary

• Android 14 improves multitasking on tablets with the Alt+Tab shortcut getting visual indicators and quick app switching.
• Recent apps display as a horizontal strip, highlighting the selected app for easier identification.
• This small change in Android 14 significantly enhances multitasking on tablets with a keyboard.

Admittedly, the best Android tablets are nowhere close to delivering the same experience as iPads. But Google has been working hard to bridge that gap, optimizing the OS for both foldables and tablets. While last year’s Android 14 was light on tablet-focused changes, it did introduce several useful usability, performance, and security features. Turns out, Google also made a small change to vastly improve the multitasking experience on tablets running Android 14.

If you use your Android tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard or similar accessory while multitasking, you must be heavily using the Alt+Tab shortcut to bring up the recent apps list. You can then use the Tab key to cycle through open apps quickly.

The problem is that on Android 13, the OS did not show a visual indicator while cycling through the apps, making it difficult to figure out which one was selected. Worse, unlike on PCs, you could not quickly press Alt+Tab to switch to the last used app. Instead, Android would open the same app you were already using. Google’s implementation was frustrating, especially since this is not how the feature works on Macs and Windows.

As spotted by Mishaal Rahman for Android Authority, though, Google appears to have quietly improved its Alt+Tab implementation on tablets in Android 14. Pressing the Alt+Tab keys now brings up a horizontal strip at the top, showing six running apps. The current selection is highlighted in gray, making it easy to identify, especially when you cycle through the open apps with the Tab key.

Quickly switch between recent apps with Alt+Tab

To see all the running apps, you can use the Tab key to go to the show ‘x’ more apps option at the end of the horizontal strip. This will bring up a full-screen view of the recent apps screen. More importantly, you can now press Alt+Tab quickly to switch to the last used app. While these are small changes, they add up to significantly enhance Android’s multitasking experience when paired with a keyboard.

The report highlighting this important multitasking improvement in Android 14 for tablets comes just as rumors of Google relaunching the Pixel Tablet with an official stylus and keyboard have popped up on the internet.