Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is preparing to add more granular controls for the size of the clock on the lock screen.
- We spotted a new UI that lets you customize the weight, width, roundness, and slant of the current clock style on the lock screen.
- This feature isn’t live yet in the latest Android beta, but we managed to partially activate it to get a glimpse at what’s coming.
Last year’s Android 14 update introduced some exciting new customization features for Pixel users: the ability to customize the lock screen. Android 14 added the ability to not only customize the two shortcuts at the bottom of the lock screen but also change the style of the clock. Google currently offers 9 clock styles that can be lightly customized in terms of color and size, but the company looks to be working on much more granularity for those size options in a future release of Android.
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We’re currently digging through the second beta for the next quarterly release of Android 15 that Google just released. While looking through the update, we noticed that Android 15 QPR2 Beta 2 continues work on the new version of the Pixel wallpaper app that we first spotted back in August. The new version of the Pixel wallpaper app is still not live yet in the latest beta, but Google has made some progress that brings it closer to launch. For example, we noticed that the clock style options are now properly populated in the new version of the app, as shown below.
However, the ability to change the size of the lock screen clock is still missing in this release. This is because Google is preparing to add a new page for customizing the lock screen clock size, one that lets you tweak the weight, width, roundness, and slant. This page will be accessed by tapping a new pencil/edit button shown on top of each lock screen clock style card. While we weren’t able to get this pencil/edit button to appear, we were able to manually launch the new lock screen clock size page, as shown in the video below:
Although some of the options aren’t working (notably the roundness and slant toggles), this demonstrates that Google is preparing to provide much more granular controls over the size of the lock screen clock. In contrast, the current version of the Pixel wallpaper app only lets you choose between two different lock screen clock options:
- Dynamic: Clock size changes according to lock screen content
- Small: A small clock shows in the corner of your lock screen
One thing we don’t know is whether these new clock size options will be available for all available clock styles. It’s very likely that these options will only be available for the relatively simpler designs, but we don’t know for sure.
We also don’t know when Google plans to roll out this new version of the Pixel wallpaper app, but it’s looking more and more like it’s not just going to be a total visual overhaul but also a major upgrade in customizability. We previously spotted that the new version of the app will also bring back icon shape customization, a feature that also isn’t live yet in the latest release. Are you looking forward to these new customization options for your Pixel phone? Let us know in the comments below!
