How to Use Split Screen on Android

To use split screen on Android, open the Recents (app switcher) screen, tap the icon above the app you want, choose Split screen, then pick a second app to run both at the same time.

Split screen is one of the most useful multitasking features on modern Android phones. You can watch a video while replying to messages, copy details from a website into a note, or keep a map open beside your chat. The exact wording changes a little between stock Android, Pixel, and Samsung One UI, but the idea is the same everywhere: two apps share the display, stacked top and bottom in portrait or side by side in landscape.

Split screen on stock and Pixel phones

On a Pixel or most near-stock phones running current Android, the feature lives inside the app switcher.

1. Open the first app you want to use.
2. Open Recents by swiping up from the bottom and holding, or by tapping the square navigation button if you use three-button navigation.
3. Tap the small app icon that appears at the top of the app’s preview card. A short menu opens.
4. Tap Split screen. The current app slides to the top half.
5. From the list of recent apps, tap the second app you want in the bottom half.

Both apps now run together. Each behaves normally, so you can scroll, type, and tap in either one. To change how much space each app gets, press and hold the black divider bar in the middle and drag it up or down.

When you tap a text field in either pane, the on-screen keyboard shares the space with both apps, so the active app shrinks slightly to make room. This is handy for copying a sentence from a web page into a message: highlight the text in the top app, tap and hold in the bottom app, and paste. You can also drag and drop text or images between many apps by pressing and holding an item and sliding it across the divider, which is one of the fastest ways to move content without saving anything first.

Split screen on Samsung One UI

Samsung Galaxy phones use One UI, which adds a few extra ways to do the same thing. The Recents method still works: open Recents, tap the app icon, and choose Open in split screen view. On top of that, One UI offers the Edge panel.

1. Enable the Edge panel from Settings, then Display, then Edge panels.
2. Swipe the panel handle inward to open your app list.
3. Drag one app to the top of the screen and a second app to the bottom.

Samsung also lets you save an app pair, a single shortcut that opens two chosen apps in split screen instantly. If you always use the same two apps together, this saves several taps every time. One UI additionally supports a floating pop-up window, which you create by dragging an app from the Edge panel to the centre of the screen.

When split screen will not appear

Not every app can be split. Developers can block multi-window support, and several categories usually do: full-screen games, some camera apps, and many secure banking or payment apps that hide their content for safety. If the Split screen option is missing for one app, that app is the reason and there is no safe way to force it.

If split screen feels sluggish, your phone may simply be short on memory or storage. Running two heavy apps at once uses more RAM, so closing background apps helps. It can also be worth clearing out junk; our guide to freeing up storage on your phone covers the quickest wins, and if a single app is misbehaving you can try clearing its cache on Android.

Getting more from two apps at once

Once you are comfortable with the basics, split screen pairs well with other Android tricks. You can capture both panes together using the screenshot tools, and for long content a scrolling screenshot on Android grabs everything below the fold in one image. If you want to demonstrate a workflow to someone, you can also record your screen on Android while both apps are running.

Exiting and troubleshooting

To leave split screen, grab the divider bar and drag it to the very top or bottom of the screen. Whichever app you push away closes, and the other returns to full screen. You can also open Recents and flick one of the two apps off the top.

If the divider is stuck or an app freezes, close both apps from Recents and start again. Rotating the phone between portrait and landscape sometimes fixes a layout that will not resize. Keeping your apps updated from the Play Store also matters, because multi-window behaviour is refined over time.

Split screen turns a single phone into a genuine two-app workspace with almost no setup. Learn the Recents shortcut, remember the Samsung app pair trick if you own a Galaxy, and you will reach for it every day. If you often mirror content to a bigger display too, you may like our walkthrough on how to cast your Android screen to a TV.