In the past, Google has often implemented innovative features, but has always given up on one desktop mode for its smartphones: essentially connecting a Pixel with a USB type-C cable to an external display nothing happenedneither a desktop mode nor a device projection.
This happened because Google placed a hardware limit to hinder this functionality, while with the Pixel 8 it inserted a software limit (can be bypassed via root), a sign that perhaps the possibility of introducing the novelty was thought about, but not immediately.
The turning point seems to be there new Beta 2 QPR3 of Android 14in which Google enabled video output on the Pixel 8 series, as reported by Mishaal Rahman on Android Authority.
In fact, with this Beta, connecting a Pixel 8 to an external screen will appearoptionwhich will ask whether to project the contents of the smartphone on the display or not.
L’default setting it is, in fact, the smartphone projection on the external display, but, if you enter the developer optionsyou can enable the “forced desktop mode“, which therefore allows you to have a PC-style interface in Android style, although at the moment it is rather bare and it is also complicated to reach it within the menu.
We remind you that this is still a feature present in a Beta, therefore nothing is definitive. Therefore, it is reasonable to think that Google is working on this mode for later officially launch it on future Pixel 9s together with Android 15 (and also allowing it on Pixel 8s).
Alternatively, we can think that it was a mistake and that Google did not want to release it intentionally, but that it somehow escaped the control of the developers: consequently, we may no longer see it in the next Beta. The hope is to see it officially and not to see it enter the Google cemetery.
