Google continues its desktop push by letting Android 16 QPR3 cast external displays

As part of its efforts to bring Android to PCs with ‘Aluminium OS,’ Google has been steadily improving how the operating system handles input peripherals, app windowing, and external displays. This includes both big changes that the majority of users expect from desktop OSes as well as smaller tweaks that only a fraction of users will appreciate. With the release of Android 16 in June, for example, Google updated the screen recorder dialog to allow you to select external displays, enabling you to record activity on them. Now with the latest beta, Google is following up by allowing you to cast screen content from external displays.

After installing Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1 on my Pixel 9 Pro and connecting it to an external display, I noticed I could now select my external display from the “Cast your screen?” dialog. As I mentioned in my coverage of Android 16’s screen recorder changes, the initial Android 16 release didn’t allow you to select external displays while casting. Google has lifted this restriction in Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1, allowing you to stream your external display’s screen contents to a Cast-enabled device.

While this change is technically related to Desktop Mode, I’m sure many of you were hoping for bigger changes. Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1 seems pretty light on desktop-related features so far, but we’ll keep digging into the update to see if we can find anything else. Be sure to keep an eye on this article for all the latest info on what’s new in Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1!