In preparation for today’s Google I/O event, I prepared a list of potential updates that the tech giant would announce for Android 14, such as accessibility, security and maybe a new health app. But at Google I/O, the brand barely touched on any of these.
Instead, they wanted you to know that they really have you covered when it comes to wallpapers. However long you think Google took to talk about their new wallpapers, they took longer. Almost five whole minutes. Here are the three biggest updates:
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Emoji wallpaper: Choose a handful of emojis and a color and the operating system will generate a mosaic of them. Then you can tap the emojis and they will shake. Meh.
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Cinematic Wallpaper: Select a photo and the AI will create a “paralax” effect that separates the foreground and background for a 3D look.
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Generative AI wallpaper (coming this fall): select “create wallpaper with AI” and a series of prompts will use Google’s text-to-image delivery patterns to create a lock screen unique to you .
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Along with new customization options for lock screens, like customizing the style for your clock and shortcuts, they also slipped a mention of a feature called Magic Compose that will let you choose “how you want to ring” in the texts. Magic Compose can make you happier, for example, or even like Shakespeare, which sounds really cool and is a fun link to Google’s Bard AI. I would have been more interested in five minutes this feature, to be honest. Alas.
