Here’s a first look at Google’s redesigned Pixel wallpaper app in Android 15 QPR1

Although the stable Android 15 update hasn’t been released yet, Google is already beta testing its first quarterly platform release. The first beta of Android 15 QPR1 was released late last week, giving us a sneak peek of what to expect in the December Android 15 update. While digging through the release, I found hints that Google might revamp the design of the Pixel wallpaper app. Here’s an early look at what the Pixel wallpaper app might look like in a future Android 15 release.

The Pixel Wallpapers app lets you apply Google Pixel wallpapers on your device. Here you can also customize the lock screen shortcuts, tweak the style of the clock on the lock screen, choose the system color palette, enable themed icons, and more. The app is basically a one-stop shop for customizing the look and feel of your home screen and lock screen.

Currently, there are two ways to access the Pixel Wallpapers app. First, you can press and hold on an empty space on the home screen and then tap the Wallpapers & Style button that appears in the context menu. Second, you can Settings > Wallpaper and styleBoth methods will take you to the Pixel Wallpapers app, but the first option will open the app on the Home screen tab while the second option will open the app on the Lock screen tab.

With the new version of the Pixel Wallpapers app that we enabled in Android 15 QPR1 Beta 1, the entry points are still the same, but the UI is significantly different. Here’s a video comparing the current UI of the Pixel Wallpapers app with the in-development UI that we enabled. Note that the in-development UI is far from finished, so many features and assets are missing. Still, this first look gives us a good idea of ​​what to expect from the new version of the app.

First off, the tabs for switching between home screen customization and lock screen customization are gone. To switch from home screen customization to lock screen customization (or vice versa), you now simply swipe from one to the other in the carousel below where it says “Wallpaper & style.”

The next big change is in lock screen clock customization. Instead of swiping left or right to cycle through available lock screen clock styles, all available options are displayed in a bottom sheet. Lock screen clock color and size customization settings are also included in this new bottom sheet, but in separate tabs.

Likewise, the lock screen shortcuts customization UI is now part of a bottom sheet instead of a separate page. With this change, you no longer have to scroll to see all the available lock screen shortcuts, as up to 10 shortcuts can fit on the sheet (currently, there are only nine shortcuts for phones).

The same goes for the system’s new color palette picker, which shows two rows of palette options instead of one. When you select a color palette, the Home screen preview zooms in so you can better see the changes to your icons. The option to toggle the dark theme also appears when you zoom in on the preview, so you can quickly preview what your Home screen will look like with the dark theme enabled too.

The remaining options and toggles don’t currently work in Android 15 QPR1 Beta 1, so we can’t demo them yet. We learned today that the Android 15 update for Pixel phones won’t roll out next month, but it’s unlikely that Google will release this new UI in the stable version of Android 15. Instead, it’s more likely that we’ll see it in the Pixel Drop in December 2024 at the earliest.