Android 15 introduces new screensavers with smart home controls

Android 15 looks to make it easier to control your smart home devices thanks to a new “Home Control” screensaver. This feature includes shortcuts to useful controls that speed up this task, as you don’t need to unlock your phone to adjust parameters of your IoT product.

Mishaal Rahman discovered that the latest Android 15 Developer Preview 2 has a “Home Control” screensaver. However, this feature appears to be in early stages of development. This means it is not visible by default and must be enabled manually to test. Once enabled, it will be available in the same section where you would normally set up a new screensaver.

This will be the new smart home control screensaver for Android 15.

When you set up your smart home screensaver, your favorite Google Home controls will appear below the time. Therefore, you can quickly access these controls without any complications. According to the report, this feature uses the same UI that appears when you set the Google Home app as a device control on Android in Android 14. This may be to maintain familiarity and ease of setup. However, we still cannot exclude the possibility that the UI will be redesigned in the final version.

It uses a UI inherited from the Google Home app, but the smart home control screensaver relies on the SystemUI app. So, it seems like the home app will essentially be partially integrated into the OS. However, in its current state, this new feature only works with Google Home. This means that other device control providers are not supported. Therefore, developers of other device control apps must create their own configurable screensavers.

Finally, the report indicates that this new feature is compatible with all Android devices running Android 15.This is where the relevant code is com.android.systemui path instead com.google.android.systemuiTherefore, it is not limited to Pixel products.

April 11, 2024