Android 15 is finally here with tons of new features including a new Home Controls screensaver that doubles up your phone or tablet into a control center for smart home devices. What’s nice is that you don’t have to unlock your device or tap a shortcut button. Meaning, you can control your smart home device right from the lock screen of your Android phone or tablet.
The new Home Controls screensaver in Android 15 turns your device into a smart home control center
The new Home Controls screensaver appears on your phone or tablet when you dock it or at the time of charging. Notably, the new screensaver in Android 15 works with the Google Home app and displays your Favorites tab.
The main highlight is that you can even customize the Favorites tab to display smart home devices like thermostats, security camera feeds, etc. The said tab also includes shortcuts that let you control all the lights, security cameras, or temperature-controlling devices.
Folks over at The Verge tested the new Home Controls screensaver on their Pixel tablet running Android Version 15 and were able to control smart home light or view a live camera feed right from the lock screen. In short, this new feature will allow you to control your smart home devices in a much faster way.
The new feature is live only for the Pixel Tablet and Pixel phones for now
More recently, Google TV got a new Home Control Panel with a recent update that does similar things discussed here. So, it’s not that we haven’t seen this feature before. It’s just that with tablets and phones controlling smart home devices will be a lot easier.
Worth noting that the new feature is currently live for Pixel Tablet and Pixel phones running Android 15. That said, the feature isn’t limited to the Google Home app or Pixel devices. According to Mishaal Rahman, this feature will be available on all Android 15 devices as long as they support screensavers. Moreover, if you want to know everything about Android 15, check it out here.