Google is experimenting with a long-asked-for control for Pixel phones in the latest QPR3 beta: a setting to hide At a Glance on the home screen while still enabling it on the lock screen. So far, the option has been rolling out server-side rather than showing up in some sort of OS update, according to early adopters.
What’s changing with At a Glance controls in QPR3 beta
At a Glance has been a staple of the Pixel experience, and has displayed timely information such as weather, calendar events, flight updates, commute times and package tracking. Users could, until now, tweak what content it showed, but not reliably control where that content would pop up. The new setting also addresses one of the community’s most common requests: to be able to keep At a Glance on the lock screen for easy viewing, while having more real estate on their home screens available for custom widgets or a cleaner layout.
Testers report that the setting appears as a basic Show on Home Screen toggle in At a Glance settings. When it’s turned off, the widget itself will disappear from your Pixel Launcher home screen, but its lock screen acknowledgment and brainpower won’t be affected.
How the At a Glance home screen toggle works and where to find it
The toggle is appearing in At a Glance controls accessible from the Google app’s settings or by long-pressing the home screen to open Pixel Launcher settings, depending on device and build.
And because the rollout is happening behind the scenes on our servers, two phones running exactly the same software may or may not behave differently. In other words, eligibility is decided by a backend flag that Google can flick on or off without a system update.
This server-initiated method of updating Android could be applied to most any part of the device: not just for apps and android.system.apps, but also SystemUI or vendor firmware modules. This “Google-style” approach to the SystemUI’s configuration is relatively common in such components that span multiple pieces, like the Google app and Pixel Launcher.
It also enables fast iteration in case any bugs show up without a need for round-tripping in the whole firmware patch.
Availability of the At a Glance toggle in the QPR3 beta
It’s started showing up for some users on QPR3 Beta 1 after surfacing last month to a small group of Pixel beta testers in recent Canary builds, according to reports from Pixel beta testers and Android reverse-engineering watchers. It’s not showing up for everyone on the beta, so this seems like a staged test by Google before it rolls it out to more people.
Normally, QPR (Quarterly Platform Release) betas are a peek at the changes that ship in forthcoming Pixel Feature Drops. Features that make it to release from these betas typically land broadly when stability criteria are met. The timing may vary as Google refines behavior and fixes last-minute bugs.
Why Pixel users should care about the At a Glance home toggle
Customization is a fundamental aspect of Android, and At a Glance has always been one of the handful of things that seemed obligatory on Pixel home screens. Many power users will supplant it with dedicated weather widgets, calendar blocks or productivity stacks; there are some who just want a minimal home screen, relying on the lock screen for context. The new toggle serves both without compromising the utility that’s made At a Glance one of our favorite features.
From a functional perspective, disabling At a Glance on the home screen eliminates redundancy (i.e., seeing weather information in two places) and frees up precious real estate at the top of your phone.
It is also useful for users who have multi-page or themed setups and don’t want any one of them to be fixed.
What to expect next for the At a Glance toggle rollout
Since the feature is server-side driven, it’s possible access could widen without a new beta build. If testing progresses well, the toggle is a good contender for making it into one of our next stable QPR releases. As with all betas, though, functionality could change between now and whenever the final release is rolled out.
If you’re on the latest QPR3 beta and this doesn’t show up for you, be patient. Make sure the Google app and Pixel Launcher are kept current, and check At a Glance settings now and again. The staged rollout indicates Google is testing performance, compatibility, and UX at scale before rolling the switch out more widely.
For some context, this is also one of the top home screen flexibility requests we see in community feedback on our Google Issue Tracker here and across Pixel forums online. The appearance of the control in testing highlights Google’s gradual march toward offering users more granular options without imperiling what makes the Pixel experience uniquely theirs.