How To Enable Multi-Window On Android M Developer Preview

By Vijaykumar Meti

| Updated: Saturday, May 30, 2015, 19:49 [IST]

Google rolled out developer preview of Android M at its annual I/O 2015. The preview version of the latest Android OS in now available for Nexus devices including Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player.

How To Enable Multi-Window On Android M Developer Preview

The Android M features the much-rumored multi-window functionality. But the option to enable or disable mulit-window is not shown to normal users as it is still in beta stage. However, we can hope it gets complete by the time of final release in Q3 2015.

Here is a guide on how to enable this feature on developer preview of Android M.

Step 1: Install TWRP recovery tool on your Nexus device. Check our latest tutorial to know how to install TWRP on Android smartphone.

Step 2: Boot into TWRP recovery mode, go into "Mount" and make sure that System is already mounted.

Step 3: Download and install Android SDK from the Android Developers website.

Step 4: Navigate to android-sdk-windows platform-tools directory and open Command Prompt.

Step 5: Now Type following commands and press enter.
adb shell
cd /system
vi build.prop

Step 6: To enable multi-window, we will need to change the line
ro.build.type=user
to
ro.build.type=userdebug

Step 7: Exit the editor and shell including all windows. Reboot the smartphone. Now you might get a notification saying unable to verify and your device and your smartphone might not work properly, but this does not effect anything.

Step 8: Now, go to developer option in device settings, and Enable the Multi-Window.

Step 9: In order to utilize Multi Window, just tap on recent used apps and tap on the new icon.

Note: This feature is still in development stage, it is closed even in the developer preview because it is very buggy.

[Disclaimer: This procedure is highly technical. If the smartphone brick or damaged during the installation process, GizBot cannot be held responsible for any kind of damage for the smartphone. Hence, the user has to perform the installation on their own risk].