With Beta 2 code you can switch what you want to open
Customization has always been one of Android’s main strengths – you can personalize the look of the software to your liking. With Android 12, Google brought in its Material You design language, complete with a wallpaper-based theme engine to increase styling options. Despite all these improvements, Android’s lock screen customization options are quite limited, even pale in comparison to iOS. Even worse, you can’t even change the lock screen shortcuts on Pixel phones. Fortunately, Google is dropping some signs of change with the latest Android 13 beta.
Internal code in Android 13’s first quarterly platform release revealed that the company was working on custom lock screen clocks for additional customization. With QPR2 Beta 2, Google is continuing its work on this front and plans to add the ability to change the lock screen shortcuts.
Mishal Rahman tips where the new “Shortcuts” option is tucked under Settings > Display > Lock screen. 9to5Google was able to pull up some code and UI related to customizing shortcuts for the Pixels.
However, Google isn’t letting users go completely wild by assigning custom lock screen shortcuts. There will be some specified options for activating the flashlight, launching the camera, opening the QR code scanner, and a few others. To ensure that the shortcuts on the lock screen are not accidentally activated, users must press and hold the icons.
Other Android manufacturers may choose to add their own shortcut editing paradigm with guidance from the Keyguard Quick Affordances framework.
Currently on Android 13, the shortcut at the bottom left of the lock screen brings up smart home controls, while the bottom right shortcut opens either the Google Wallet app on the Pixel 7 series or a carousel of your saved cards on older Pixels. Samsung already allows owners of Galaxy devices to customize the lock screen shortcuts for any app or action they want. After the release of iOS 16, the top Android manufacturer has also made additional lock screen improvements for One UI 5. If Google wants to catch up, it needs to make big strides.