Always On Ambient Display available on Pixel 2 Android Oreo

We just confirmed the next-gen Pixel phones’ launch date and anticipation for October 4 is building up. We’re certain two new smartphones will be revealed but we’re also expecting other products or services to be announced. Perhaps a new Google Home model or another Chromebook Pixel? As for the Google Pixel devices, we know they might be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 836 processor and the latest Android 8.0 Oreo.

The tasty Oreo will deliver new features and a number of enhancements to the Pixel 2. Important features include password manager integration and the Always On Ambient Display mode. The latter, however, may not be ready during the previous Oreo versions but will be available on the Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2. It should be readily available, that is, if you can enable it in AOSP. Once enabled, you can freely take advantage of the display even when screen is turned off.

This Always On Display will work similary to what LG and Samsung showed us before. You can see a notification or a clock even when screen is off. It will be pretty useful. One XDA developer was able to test the feature on the Google Nexus 6 with Android Oreo. The port is still unofficial but actually works. For this device and version of the OS, the System UI Tuner is already enabled.

Checking the source of the OS, the dev some an “alwaysOnAvailable” code that is tagged as “false”. This can be reversed by simply changing the method to “true”. This means, if you know how to code, you are free to make the changes. The phone used here is a Nexus 6 but it’s on Oreo so it should also work in the next-gen Pixels. Check out XDA Developer Mishaal Rahman’s post to try it out and see for yourself.

VIA: XDA Developers