The apps that Google is updating to work better on tablets include YouTube Music, Google Maps, Messages, Google Play, Gmail, Google Home, and Google TV among others. By the time that the Pixel Tablet comes out next year, we’ll likely have most of Google apps updated for tablets.
It’s a continuation of Android 12L
Last year, after Google started rolling out Android 12 to everyone, it then announced Android 12L. It was a beta version of Android that would be an update to Android 12 in the form of a Pixel Drop. It was a pretty small update to Android 12L, but it had some big updates for Foldables and tablets. This was Google’s attempt at making Android 12 work better on these larger displays. Like the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and other tablets. As it would take better advantage of the larger screen there. By also including a dock at the bottom, a lot like on Chrome OS or macOS. It’s about time that Google started to take tablets seriously again, instead of just letting Apple own the tablet space. Samsung has never given up on tablets, even though Google did. Samsung continued to release some of the best tablets ever made. Sadly though, Google’s Android software let them down. So while the Galaxy Tab S series were very powerful, the software just couldn’t take advantage of that. But we expect that to change next year with the Pixel Tablet launching, likely in the fall.