Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google’s been refreshing its Wallpapers & style app for Android 16 QPR1 with new features like Magic Portrait and theme support.
- With QPR1 Beta 2 the company has started grouping together its wallpaper creation and editing tools under a new Wallpaper Studio banner.
- This replaces the previous “suggested photos” view.
When you’re interested in customizing the look and feel of your Pixel phone, there’s probably nowhere better to start than Google’s own Wallpaper & style app. It already offered a ton of control over setting up both your lock screen and home screen, and it’s only been getting better as of late, thanks to some smart UI updates in QPR1 Beta 1. With this week’s release of QPR1 Beta 2 we’ve been digging around in search of everything new Google’s managed to cook up, and have identified some further improvements hitting Wallpaper & style.
In Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2, when you go to select a wallpaper in the Wallpaper & style app (or simply accessed through system settings) you’ll discover a new Wallpaper Studio section up top.
Now we should be clear that functionally we’re not seeing anything new here; the actual wallpaper creation and editing tools found with this release are all ones we were already aware of, but are now being grouped together in this convenient fashion. That offers a one-stop shop for not just generating emoji wallpaper, but also taking advantage of Google’s powerful effects and AI tools. Those include options like making pseudo-3D effects with Cinematic wallpapers or tapping into the generative power of the AI wallpaper tools Google introduced with the Pixel 8 series.
Maybe the coolest present here is the Magic Portrait feature we only just got to know with QPR1 Beta 1, which beyond offering some clever framing modes allows you to do stuff like applying dynamic weather effects, helping your phone’s wallpaper reflect the world around you. While we’d definitely love to see Wallpaper & style pick up even more functionality along that line, a little UI cleanup and the introduction of this appropriate Wallpaper Studio branding is just fine by us, too.
Keep checking in with Android Authority for even more coverage of the changes Google’s packed into QPR1 Beta 2. We’ve already spotted things like a status bar reorganization and smarter volume controls, and you had better believe that the list will only keep growing.
