Newly discovered leaks reveal that Google is working on several ways for Pixel owners to customize the look of their devices, as well as the ability to create their own cinematic photos.
This information comes from Google News Telegram, which is not officially affiliated with Google itself, but is run by industry insider Nail Sadykov. There it turns out that the tech giant recently introduced Emoji Workshop Wallpaper app for Pixel phones with the system third beta of Android 14.
The software allows users to select up to 14 individual emoticons, choose from five different patterns (mosaic, lotus, stacks, placer and prism) and choose the color of the wallpaper. Your Pixel device will then generate a wallpaper that can be set as your lock or home screen, depending on your choice. This customized wallpaper is also interactive as touching the screen makes the emojis dance a bit.
If you are too lazy to come up with a wallpaper yourself, the app can also randomly generate wallpapers for you.
Installing Emoji Workshop may take some work though as you will have to install it Android 14 Beta 3 on a compatible Pixel device. Be sure to check out the TechRadar guide for detailed instructions for downloading the beta version. Once installed, you also need to download the app from the Emoji Workshop Google Play store page.
Note that it only works on Pixel phones. Also, opening the Play Store link with anything else results in an error message.
Read the news differently
The Google News app also received new widgets Material You. The smaller Quick Look widget focuses on just one story, so people can continue using their phone as normal. There is also a list view where you can view multiple headlines on a specific topic.
A post on the Telegram channel says that this update will arrive with the launch of version 5.82 of the Google News app. As a warning, there are third-party sites offering the option to install version 5.82. We strongly advise against downloading them for security reasons. Better to wait for the official version.
Finally, Google will allow users to create their own cinematic photos. This AI feature originally came out in December 2020, adding a slow camera rotation animation to your photos. Until now, Google has been selecting images to edit, but in the future there will be new controls in the Library/Tools section of the Google Photos app.
According to the leak, the update is apparently already available to a select few. Note that it will remain available only to Pixel device owners with a Google One subscription.
There’s no word on a release date for either the emoji wallpaper or the Google News widget, although we expect both to arrive with Android 14 later this summer.