Android Ambient Mode redefines the way you use your phone. But Doro was faster
Android has some new features. Ambient mode is a kind of intelligent display when your phone is charging. It offers a new approach to your smartphone. But only on selected devices. Which devices? We only know part of the story.
Google has released a video. With Production Value and all. In the 90-second video, Google Assistant product manager Arvind Chandrababu announces that "select devices" will receive Ambient Mode. Ambient Mode is a new feature of Assistant that shows you on the lock screen what functions you can use as long as your smartphone is plugged in.
Google is thus taking an important first step into the future. As Arvind says in the video, phone usage is moving from "App Based" to "Intent Based". Or at least on the lock screen. While your phone is plugged in. And only if you own one of the selected phones - we still don't know which ones. Some models are already equipped with Ambient Mode, but the list shouldn't be exhaustive.
App Based: a glimpse of the story
With the words "There is an App for that", the iPhone advertised in 2009.
No matter what you want to do with your smartphone, there's an app for that. Just go to the App Store, search for the feature you want, install the app, click on it and voila, a new mode of functionality opens up.
This principle is "App based", based on an app. Two elements play an important role here:
- Technological: you need an app that offers functionality
- Mental: you need to remember which app does what and use it
This principle is old. Much older than the iPhone. The first graphical operating systems on computers used a form like this. Want to write some text? Open Word and start writing. Want to edit images? Look for the Photoshop icon, double-click, off you go.
Smartphones copied this principle. Even today, it dominates the way we use Android and Apple iOS.
Slowly but surely, this is set to change. Resourceful developers have found that the influx of apps into download shops is not about to stop. The future will probably be "Intention Based".
Intent Based: the future
If software is "Intent based", the use of individual applications should be eliminated as far as possible. With advances in artificial intelligence and the personalisation of smartphones, it is becoming possible to provide functions based on the user's intention, intent in English, and not on the primary function of the application. Your smartphone can in fact take over many of your thoughts when it comes to using applications. Here are a few examples:
- Do you only write messages via WhatsApp? Your phone can pull resources from other apps and give them to WhatsApp when you write messages
- Every time you get home, do you turn on your smart bulbs if it's dark? Your phone can do that for you by correlating sunrise, sunset, time of day and your geolocation.
- Do you like to listen to the news on the radio in the morning when you get into your car? Your phone correlates the time of day, Android Auto and geolocation, and turns on your favourite radio station
All these things are possible, but sometimes they still require a bit of manual work. Apps - we'd be back on 'App based' to have 'Intent based' - like Tasker or Philips Hue, offer corresponding functionality in limited form. But it's already a step in the right direction, even if the intention is still primarily environmental and not personalised.
Intent based in practice
In theory this sounds good, but in practice Android has so far found it difficult to move from app to intent. Google Assistant should remedy this. In Ambient Mode, Google Assistant shows you features you might need based on a range of factors that are, according to the video, not yet fully accessible.
When in use, your smartphone is given a new lock screen when it is charging. On it, the most frequently recognised functions are displayed at the bottom of the lock screen. In the example, these are Smart Lights commands, an intelligent thermostat and "Do not disturb" mode. The weather, time, missed calls and appointments are displayed above. In Ambient Mode, you can choose between a background image gallery and a neutral dark grey background.
Interesting detail: Ambient Mode recognises which connected devices you use most often. For me, it's the lights in the bedroom, bathroom and dining room (also known as where my workbench is). Plus "All Lights", because I always give my Smart Lights the "Turn off all lights" command before I go to bed.
Doro were first, Nokia are still before Pixel
Intention-based navigation in Android is nothing new. A pioneer of this method is Swedish smartphone maker Doro, which has cornered much of the "smartphones for the elderly" market. Doro Phones runs a launcher that turns the user's mind on its head. You don't search for WhatsApp to write, but say "I want to send a message" to choose an app.
I'd had a look at the Doro 8040 in 2017 before moving into the official digitec studio and after a little accident with a board that landed on my face. The phone's launcher is structured so that the user asks the question "What do I want to do?" before each action. Then you can choose an indexed application. WhatsApp doesn't appear under 'Call', but it does under 'Write'. While this isn't the smartest, most sophisticated form of an intent-based system, it does illustrate how intent-based systems work.
In contrast to the Doros launcher, Google Ambient Display is designed to anticipate your needs. We still don't know how. Nor do we know which devices will receive Ambient Display. Unconfirmed sources talk of three brands. Nokia seems to have been confirmed. Because after updating my Nokia 7.2 an option called "Ambient Display" appeared.
The favour I'm asking
As is often the case with Google, it's not yet clear exactly which devices will receive Ambient Display, or when, where and under what circumstances. So I'm asking you for a favour. Once you've updated your phone, check to see if such an option is available in your Google Assistant. Here's how it works:
- Activate the assistant
- Click on the compass needle in the bottom right
- Then on your photo, top right
- Settings
- Assistant
- Devices
There should be an option called "Ambient Mode". Please note: this is not the same option as "Ambient Display", which you see above. "Ambient Mode" can be found further down under the "Customisation" menu item.
If you find the option, please post your phone model and Android version in the comments. Perhaps we can track down the "device selection" together.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.