When it comes to wallpaper previews, bigger is better
Is there any customization option more important to making a phone really feel “yours” than the choice of wallpaper? Whether on the lock screen or home screen, that’s an image we’ll probably see dozens to hundreds of times a day, and it helps set the mood for our interactions with our devices. Earlier today, Android 13 QPR2 Beta 3 became available for testers on Pixel phones, and as we hear more and more about the changes contained within, we’re learning about a nice-looking overhaul coming to the wallpaper picker.
Android expert Mishaal Rahman details the changes Google is making to the Wallpaper & style settings menu on Pixel phones for QPR2. Probably the “biggest” there is a newly enlarged preview screen that gives you a better sense of how your new choice of wallpaper will actually appear on your device, filling the display. While you could pull up such a view before with an additional tap, QPR2 Beta 3 makes the larger look the default.
The old Wallpaper & style interface (left); QPR2 Beta 3’s new full-screen view (right)
That sounds like it’s just the start of Google’s tweaks here, and QPR2 Beta 3 seems to show some early signs of a broader refresh to the whole interface here. We already heard about plans to let users reconfigure lock screen shortcuts, and now Rahman believes that some of the changes Google’s working on for Wallpaper & style could be a consequence of giving users those new options.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing to see in QPR2 Beta 3 that actually shows off those settings, leaving us to continue anticipating them for the time being. We’ve only got a little over a month to go until we’re expecting this code to go stable for the March Pixel Feature Drop, so there’s not a ton of time left to get things up and running — assuming Google doesn’t end up holding this back even longer.
