Android 12L brings a neat quick wallpaper switcher to Google Pixel phones

An easy way to switch up your style

Google released the first Android 12L beta yesterday, and while the bulk of the update is meant for big screens like tablets and foldables, there are a few things that have an effect on the regular phone experience. Among them is a new Quick Wallpaper Picker that allows you to change your homescreen’s background on the fly.

As spotted by Mishaal Rahman on Twitter, the new wallpaper picker lives right on the homescreen. To access it, you need to tap and hold an empty space in your launcher, which will invoke the usual long-press menu with access to home settings and widgets as well as the redesigned wallpaper & style entry. Here, you’ll have access to the last five wallpapers you’ve selected for your phone, and you can switch them out on the fly.

Image Gallery (2 Images)

Credit: Mishaal Rahman

Left: Android 12. Right: Android 12L.

While the option might seem superfluous, it makes perfect sense on Android 12, given that all of the system colors are based on your wallpaper. Even if you’re happy with the wallpaper you picked, you might want to experiment with a few more to see which system colors you like the best, and the new quick picker makes it easy to just switch back and forth without having to actually enter your wallpaper app over and over again.

Credit: Mishaal Rahman

The Quick Wallpaper Picker was already part of the first Android 12L Developer Preview, but back then, you needed to know your way around Android’s hidden system flags to activate it. With the picker now available for anyone using the beta, it’s almost safe to assume that it will become part of the final Android 12L release, too.

You can download the Android 12L beta for your Pixel phone by joining the Android beta program. Just note that it’s currently only available on older Pixel handsets, starting with the Pixel 3a — the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are excluded from the fun for now, but it shouldn’t take Google much time to bring them up to date. If you’d rather wait for the stable release, you won’t have to wait too long — Android 12L is slated to go live for everyone “early next year.”

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Manuel Vonau (1514 Articles Published)

Manuel is a tech enthusiast and Android fan based in Berlin. When he's not writing articles for Android Police, he's probably out and about as a videographer.

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