Split screen and multi resume

Hello,
Since I have LineageOS 16.0 (Android Pie) I use more and more the “split screen”, holding the square button to have two app almost running in parallel.
Almost?
As described here:

However, the split-screen functionality, as was introduced in the past, continues to suffer from one grave limitation. While you can open two apps in split-screen view and better utilize your evergrowing screen real estate, you cannot run the two apps simultaneously. When two apps are opened in split-screen, only one app is retained as the active app at a time while the other app is paused.

This is really annoying when you start playing a YouTube video on one screen and it freezes when focus is lost.

Apparently, a new feature will come for Android Q: multi-resume, allowing two apps in parallel. :smile:

Where it is not clear to me is that could already be available in Android Pie if the OEM allows it

Developers can opt-in to this behavior by simply including this meta-data in the app manifest.
*meta-data android:name="android.allow_multiple_resumed_activities" android:value="true" *
Currently there are no devices to test out this behavior but OEMs are expected to push out updates to their devices to allow developers to test their apps.

To conclude, a little trick that I just discovered: if the app refuse to go to split screen it is possible to force it in developper settings. :slight_smile:

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I just tested this new functionality with LineageOS 17.0 BETA, that is based on Android 10 Q.
And this works! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
I could split my screen with a youtube video playing on the top-half (on Firefox Klar) while I was writing a message on the bottom-half (on Telegram), and the video continued without interruption :sunny: :blush:

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