Start with Android13the only way to display the taskbar on a foldable book is to swipe from the navigation handle to the top of the screen. But that changes with Android15 and with the upcoming version of Android, Google is adding a button that lets you quickly bring back a larger taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Google is working on optimizing the taskbar so that it can be displayed on a smartphone without making everything else on the phone look smaller.

You can now display a taskbar on a phone running the Android 15 beta, but it comes at a price. | Image credit: PhoneArena

In Android15 Beta 4, Rahman discovered a taskbar feature that gives users the ability to always display a taskbar at the bottom of the screen without changing the scale of the display. Hopefully, this smaller smartphone taskbar will be ready to use by then Android15 will be released but is not yet ready for prime time.

If you now have a taskbar on your Android Phone Running the Android15 Beta, it is possible, but you need to make a change to the display so that everything becomes too small to view. Go to Settings > By phone. Tap the word “Build Number” at the bottom of the screen six times to enable developer options. Then go back to Settings > system > Developer options. Under the Drawing heading (it comes after the Input heading), tap on Smallest Width and change it from 411 dp to 600. You will see the taskbar at the bottom of the phone.

Most likely, you will want to switch back to 411 dp because it is too difficult to read the screen. If you decide that a taskbar is not worth staring at your phone and waiting for the smartphone version of the taskbar to become available, hopefully in Android15is probably your best choice.