Android Q beta 1 build dropped yesterday, and we’re constantly getting new info regarding the changes it brought. In this article, we’re focusing on a lockscreen-related change that is not really all that obvious from the get-go.
In Android 9 Pie, when you play audio files with any sort of art attached to it (like album art), the background of your lockscreen will utilize that art image. That change was introduced way back in Android 4.4 KitKat, but things are changing, it seems. In Android Q beta 1, the lock screen background blurs out when you’re playing audio files, quite a bit, actually.
The blurred image in the background does change based on the artwork attached to the audio file you’re playing, but there seem to be so much more in play here, as it’s not exactly the artwork image, it seems like it mushes together various styles in order to create what you’re getting here. If you play music with predominantly black and white album art, the image in the background will be mostly gree. It’s not exactly easy to explain, images in the gallery will let you see the change, though.
Needless to say, this looks a bit odd. Including album art in the background makes sense, complete sense, this, on the other hand, not so much. It is quite possible that Google may tweak this feature by the time a stable build of Android Q comes knocking, but it seems like we’re stuck with these odd, blurred out backgrounds while playing audio files.
Android Q is here, but it’s not entirely stable
As previously mentioned, Google announced and released the very first Android Q beta build. That build is available for Pixel phones as we speak, though it is not entirely stable. It is usable, but wouldn’t recommend you to use it on your daily driver or anything of the sort. There are some bugs present, while you can’t even change the dark mode situation in the OS, if you utilized dark mode before, it’s still here, if not, it’s not.
In Android Q beta 1 Google introduced a much better sharing experience via sharing shortcuts. The share menu is now much faster than before, while sharing shortcuts let you jump directly into another app to share content.
Android Q also introduced “Settings Panels”, which is an API that allows applications to show settings to users in the context of their application, an app that they’re currently in. Android Q beta 1 brings support for foldables and “innovative new screens”, while it also includes notches in screenshots now, for some reason. This seems to be a really od move by Google, as screenshots look much cleaner without notches, as they are on Android 9 Pie, but that will change in Android Q, it seems.
Google also talked quite a bit about security and privacy, as Android Q brings it on a whole new level, which is always good. Peer-to-peer internet connectivity has been improved in Android Q beta 1, while many more changes were announced by the company.
