Sidecar is great. It’s my favorite software thing Apple has introduced in years. I’m using it right now, as I type this, in fact. For many app developers, however, the feature’s arrival with macOS Catalina was an expected, but still potentially, devastating piece of news. We spoke to Duet Display and Astropad about how the phenomenon of “Sherlock” could profoundly impact their respective models.
“We actually have a couple of other big product launches that are not connected to the space this summer,” Duet founder and CEO Rahul Dewan said at the time. “We should be fairly diverse.” It seems Android tablet compatibility was pretty high on that list. Today the company announced a release for Google’s operating system after several months of beta testing.
“Our users have frequently asked us to bring our product to Android, and since early this year, we have been working on an Android release of Duet so that we can expand our technology to new platforms,” Duet writes. “We have privately been beta testing with hundreds of users, working hard to create a robust product that performs well across as many Android devices as possible.”
The app operates similarly to the iPad version, making it possible to use an Android tablet as a second display. That means, among other things, a much more affordable way to get a second screen for your laptop. The connection will work both wired and wireless. Current users will have to update the latest version of the Mac or Windows desktop version of the app.
It’s tough not to feel bad for a small developer effectively getting sidelined by native support (and really solid implementation in the case of Sidecar), but it’s nice to see Duet continuing to fight.