While there are many ways you can multitask on Android devices, one of the things that prevented it from becoming as powerful as the desktop PC is that you can’t run/view multiple apps side-by-side. If you are using a custom ROM like OmniROM, you will know that it comes with a multi-windows feature that allows you to run two apps side by side in split view. For those of us using a stock ROM, you can now use the XMultiWindow to achieve the same effect.

Note: XMultiWindow is an Xposed Module and requires Xposed Framework to work. It also requires your phone to be rooted.

Installation

Assuming that you have already installed Xposed Installer on your device, you can download “XMultiWindow” from the “Download” section (Alternatively, you can download the app here).

After the download, activate it in the “Modules” section.

Usage

The usage is very simple. First, run the XMultiWindow app and click the “Sidebar Settings,” followed by “Sidebar App Settings.”

From here, you can tap the “ADD” button at the top right hand corner to add the apps that you want to run in split view mode. Note that you have to add the apps first before you can use it. It doesn’t work by default for all apps.

Once you have added the apps, return to the main screen and select “Open Sidebar.” This will open the sidebar and show you all the apps that you have added. Select the app you want to launch. You should see the app launch with a window size of half the screen. The second app you launch will show up in the next half of the screen.

You can, of course, decide whether the app shows up in the top or bottom half of the screen by selecting the Up/Down (or Left/Right if your phone is in a landscape orientation) workspace.

Conclusion

As can be seen, this is really useful only if you have a device with a big screen, particularly a phablet or tablet. It will still work on a phone, but the effect won’t be desirable. While XMultiWindow is still in the early stages of development, we have used it without much problem. It won’t work for some system apps, but most of them should work fine.

Now you can truly multi-task on your Android device.

Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.

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