Google might be working on bringing an always-on Ambient display feature popularized by Motorola to Pixel and even Nexus devices. A recent APK teardown of the SystemUIGoogle.apk revealed a code line which hinted at this particular feature under development.
The code was found in the latest Developer Preview of Android O. During the teardown, XDA Developers found “doze” in the code line which translates to Ambient Display in day to day usage. As pointed out, Google coders choose names irrespective of the feature those names symbolize.
The Ambient Display is a way to show quick useful info right on to the lock screen in white & black. It is designed to wake on specific moments like picking up your device or when a notification comes in. This way it saves battery.
Even though the feature is there in the code, this doesn’t mean the feature will actually land on to Google devices. You might see it with Android 0 and you might not. If you are running the developer build and are curious, the code can be found in the SystemUI Tuner. Further, SystemUI Tuner can be opened by long pressing the settings icon in the notification drop down.
