The new Android 16 multitasking looks cool, but OnePlus is still beating it

Android authority Recently, I became practical with the new multitasking of Android 16; Overall, he looks fantastic. From what we have seen, it will be more fluid, simpler and much faster than what we have today in Android 15. But a great improvement that the new version of Google in Android 16 can be part of me, I wish it more closely at the multitasking user interface of another Android brand.

First of all, what makes multitasking in Android 16 so great? I will start by explaining why the multitasking in Android 15 is so bad.

While other Android manufacturers have created their own (and better) multitasking solutions, the native version of Android 15 today is a very basic shared screen approach. It allows you to open two applications on your phone simultaneously, either in a 50/50 division, or with an adjustable size using the bar in the middle of the screen.

In practice, it has never been so useful. Can it be useful to see two applications on your phone at a time? Of course. But even on a phone as large as the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, having crushed applications in half makes most of them unusable or very difficult to navigate.

In short, you can reduce all your bubble applications and make them live in the bubble bar near the lower corner of your screen. Open applications from the bubble bar do not take control of your whole screen, so you can access these bubbling applications on your home screen or while you use another application. The video above is a good demonstration of its operation.

The advantage of this on the current multitasking solution is simple. Instead of running two applications simultaneously in small and crushed windows, you can run them in a view mainly on the screen while tilting together faster than ever. It is also easy to see how it would be useful if you want an application like WhatsApp or Telegram in your bubble bar, allowing you to use your phone as you wish while having easy access to all your conversations.

Okay, great! So what is the problem, then? As happy as I can see Google rethinking Android Multitasking, and also substantial of an upgrade, the bubble bar is still, it still does not correspond to the current gold stallion for the multitasking on Android – this gold standard being an open canvas.

First release alongside the OnePlus Open and then extended to non -folding phones such as the OnePlus 13 and 13R, Open Canvas is the personalized approach of OnePlus for Android Multitasking. At first glance, it looks a lot like the regular multitasking user interface of Android. You have two applications on your screen simultaneously, each operating in the usual distribution 50/50.

What makes the canvas unique is that you can reduce one of these applications to a small ribbon, while the other takes most of the screen. Once you have done this, you see your main application working in a mainly complete view, allowing you to use it as usual. When you press your other narrowed application, it changes space with your primary / complete screen.

Having used an open canvas on my OnePlus 13 in recent months, this multitasking approach is so good. For example, when I have to check my shopping list while adding things to my target basket for a collection order, being able to go back and forth between Google Keep and Target with just a tap is incredibly practical. In addition, when I finished looking at my list in Google Keep, I can slide it and let the target application function normally.

I love this approach because it gives you the best of all worlds. You can easily cycle between two applications that you use simultaneously, quickly close an application when you finished with it and easily return to a traditional 50/50 view of shared screen in these rare cases where it is what you want. The best part is that activation of the open canvas is child’s play; Slide with three fingers, press the two applications you want to use and you left for shopping.

To be clear, I am very happy to see Google rethinking the multitasking with Android 16. Everything is better than what we have at the moment, and the bubble bar approach looks like a really important upgrade. But I have concerns.

On the one hand, the user interface to activate the bubble bar is the same scanning gesture to go home, simply pushed into the right corner. I’m sure Google will make sure that it does not cause any accidental at home, but I always worry about how it will work in practice. It also does not seem that you can transparently pass bubbles with shared multitasking with the same user interface, which, although not the end of the world, is something that the open canvas manages gracefully. Likewise, I prefer that Open Canvas is based on an existing multitasking interface to improve it, rather than introducing a new system to learn and adapt.

Admittedly, all of this is managing, and the complaints or not, I can’t wait to get my hands on the Android 16 bubble multitasking. I don’t know if that is enough to dethrone the open canvas like my multitasking UI of choice, but I am certainly impatient to see if it can.