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 simple to change the launcher in your Android cellphone 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 loads longer to change 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 method: Lockscreen customization.

As of iOS 16, iPhone lockscreens can are available in a wide range of completely different types, characteristic customized animations, and widgets that show data from different apps. In distinction, the Pixel lockscreen in Android 16 is surprisingly restrained. That does not imply you possibly can’t change it to make it extra helpful to you, nonetheless. Google nonetheless provides some useful choices you possibly can tweak, and I’ve discovered they make an enormous distinction in how helpful my Pixel is, whether or not I am working or not.

The lockscreen is the touchdown web page in your cellphone

You may as effectively make it a helpful one

Apart from your cellphone case, your lockscreen is the primary place you are in a position to specific your self in your cellphone. That chance for self-expression is considered one of many causes cellphone 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 situations, 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 cellphone, then its means to each show data and shortly let me entry apps or options on my cellphone are its two most vital options. Fortunately, Google provides just a few 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 precise shortcut slot. Each are cellphone capabilities I attain for sometimes, and having the shortcuts on the lockscreen means I can instantly entry them with out wading by means of different distractions on my cellphone.

To make my Pixel extra helpful as a method to obtain glanceable data, I additionally make notifications viewable on my lockscreen, so I need not unlock my cellphone to learn them or act on them. This won’t be possible or secure for everybody, however since I spend nearly all of the time working from residence, it has been fantastic for me. As a closing cherry on prime, I additionally prefer to have Google’s Now Playing feature enabled on my Pixel so I can determine the songs taking part in round me. Once I do work in a espresso store, Now Enjoying has been a enjoyable method to determine 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 effectively 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 possibly can see or do

If the Pixel lockscreen expertise appears easy now, there’s 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 supply stay data from an app or service, go a good distance in the direction of making the lockscreen a spot for up-to-date data. However Google may undoubtedly go additional.

iPhones now help what are primarily locksreen widgets — possibly a extra applicable comparability can be smartwatch “complications” — for a fair wider number of stay data or shortcuts into apps. Google discovering a method to adapt Android’s widget system (which is admittedly far more purposeful than Apple’s) into one thing that works on the lockscreen may 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 an additional shortcut or one other supply of passive data may make an enormous distinction for folks attempting to get essentially the most out of their smartphone.

Work with what you have acquired

On Android, that is nonetheless greater than most

It is ironic that iPhones supply extra customization choices than Google’s personal smartphone with regards to the lockscreen, however for many individuals the opposite advantages of Android are price what are doubtless short-term trade-offs. Pocket-lint has coated home screen customization options and other ways you possibly can tweak your Android cellphone 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.