Press and hold a shortcut to trigger it
You can customize and tweak almost every aspect of Android to your liking. It’s only the lock screen where the OS falls short, with even iPhones offering more customization options with widgets and custom clock sizes. Google has, however, worked to fill this gap. The Android 13 QPR2 beta revealed new customization options coming to Pixels, including the ability to change lock screen shortcuts. The third beta of Android 13 QPR2 provides more information on how you can change and enable lock screen shortcuts.
As detailed previously, Google plans to add a new Shortcuts option under Settings > Display > Lock screen. From here, Pixel owners can replace the lock screen shortcuts with one of the preset options. Mishaal Rahman has now posted screenshots revealing what the lock screen settings customization page will look like.
You will need to individually select the left or right shortcut button and then assign the action. Google apparently doesn’t plan to let you assign custom app shortcuts. Instead, there will be preset options like Do Not Disturb, Device Control, Flashlight, Camera, or None. This is one area where Samsung’s One UI lock screen customization will trump Google’s implementation. The first lets you assign custom app shortcuts to your Galaxy phone’s lock screen.
As seen on iPhones, you need to press and hold a shortcut to activate it. This is better than a single touch as it will prevent the shortcut from triggering due to accidental touches.
Besides the ability to change shortcuts, Google is also working on letting you use a custom clock on the lock screen. To better reflect these new additions, the company plans to revamp the Wallpaper and style settings menu and divide it into two: lock screen and home screen.
From the screenshot, it looks like Google is almost done preparing its lock screen customization options. So expect these changes to go live in the next Android 13 feature release in March 2023.