I tweaked this key space of my Pixel to make it extra helpful

Android has lengthy been considered a extra customizable working system than Apple’s iOS. Google makes it straightforward to change the launcher in your Android telephone and radically alter the way it works, and even on the corporate’s personal Pixel phones, the previous few years of software program updates have provided a number of official methods to vary the visible look of your smartphone. The iPhone took quite a bit longer to turn into as equally versatile, however as Apple has made the iPhone simpler to personalize, the corporate has pulled forward of the Pixel in a single key approach: Lockscreen customization.

As of iOS 16, iPhone lockscreens can are available in quite a lot of totally different kinds, characteristic customized animations, and widgets that show info from different apps. In distinction, the Pixel lockscreen in Android 16 is surprisingly restrained. That does not imply you’ll be able to’t change it to make it extra helpful to you, nonetheless. Google nonetheless gives some useful choices you’ll be able to tweak, and I’ve discovered they make a giant distinction in how helpful my Pixel is, whether or not I am working or not.

The lockscreen is the touchdown web page to your telephone

You may as nicely make it a helpful one

Apart from your telephone case, your lockscreen is the primary place you are in a position to specific your self in your telephone. That chance for self-expression is considered one of many causes telephone firms embracing customization options is so thrilling. However your lockscreen can also be a key supply of knowledge, whether or not you are checking the time or present climate circumstances, or notifications you have acquired from different apps.

If I consider my lockscreen as a form of touchdown web page for the remainder of my telephone, then its potential to each show info and rapidly let me entry apps or options on my telephone are its two most essential options. Fortunately, Google gives a number of methods to tweak my lockscreen to fulfill these wants. As of proper now, I maintain the Flashlight shortcut within the left shortcut house on my Pixel 9‘s lockscreen and Android’s Do Not Disturb mode in the proper shortcut slot. Each are telephone features I attain for sometimes, and having the shortcuts on the lockscreen means I can instantly entry them with out wading by way of different distractions on my telephone.

To make my Pixel extra helpful as a strategy to obtain glanceable info, I additionally make notifications viewable on my lockscreen, so I needn’t unlock my telephone to learn them or act on them. This won’t be possible or protected for everybody, however since I spend nearly all of the time working from house, it has been tremendous for me. As a closing cherry on high, I additionally prefer to have Google’s Now Playing feature enabled on my Pixel so I can establish the songs taking part in round me. After I do work in a espresso store, Now Enjoying has been a enjoyable strategy to establish songs I’d wish to save for later.

Within the grand scheme of issues, these are small modifications to make to the lockscreen of my Pixel 9, however they’ve labored nicely for me, and within the absence of larger customizations, I am glad that I’ve them.

The lockscreen options Android is lacking

There’s nonetheless solely a lot you’ll be able to see or do

If the Pixel lockscreen expertise appears easy now, there may be hope: Google has been slowly adopting extra of Apple’s lockscreen options. New additions like Live Updates, that are included as a part of Android 16 and provide stay info from an app or service, go a good distance in the direction of making the lockscreen a spot for up-to-date info. However Google might undoubtedly go additional.

iPhones now assist what are basically locksreen widgets — perhaps a extra applicable comparability can be smartwatch “complications” — for an excellent wider number of stay info or shortcuts into apps. Google discovering a strategy to adapt Android’s widget system (which is admittedly way more useful than Apple’s) into one thing that works on the lockscreen might go a good distance in the direction of making its Pixels extra private and helpful.

Even doing one thing so simple as providing the house “Now Enjoying” takes up on the backside of your lockscreen for one more shortcut or one other supply of passive info might make a giant distinction for folks making an attempt to get essentially the most out of their smartphone.

Work with what you have received

On Android, that is nonetheless greater than most

It is ironic that iPhones provide extra customization choices than Google’s personal smartphone in terms of the lockscreen, however for many individuals the opposite advantages of Android are price what are seemingly non permanent trade-offs. Pocket-lint has coated home screen customization options and other ways you’ll be able to tweak your Android telephone to make it yours. Within the meantime, although, I am pleased with what is feasible on my Pixel 9, and I hope extra choices come quickly.