AI-generated wallpapers, available in preview on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, are one of the new features of Android 14. Better yet, your smartphone guides you in creating the wallpaper you want.
The Made by Google conference took place on October 4th, where Google officially presented its Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. The company also announced the release of a stable version of Android 14 on its Pixel smartphones. Enough to see the introduction of a number of new features, including wallpapers generated by artificial intelligence.
This is how AI-generated wallpapers work in Android 14
The change in Android 14 is more general than just wallpapers: personalization has been pushed further by a slider. Innovation is particularly important when it comes to wallpaper.
Source: Google
Source: Google
Source: Google
In the wallpaper and style settings of Android 14 we find this new feature. In the “Background” subsection there is now the option to create one “with AI”. There Android guides us step by step and first asks us to select a theme. This could be a dark theme, a “soft” focus, a dreamscape, etc. You can then choose what you want to represent: a tree, a building, an object, an animal, etc. The AI then asks for a property: this can be a material, a texture, etc. Finally we can choose a color, a tone.
Source: Google
Source: Google
Source: Google
Source: Google
Predefined suggestions are formulated each time, but it seems that we can create our own prompts (instructions for the AI based on keywords).
Source: Google
Source: Google
There you can finally click on “Create Background” and wait a few seconds until you see the result. Or rather the results, since the smartphone offers several versions of an image so that we can choose the one we want.
All Android smartphones could benefit from this, but nothing is certain
Currently, this feature is only available on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. We can expect it to be expanded to other Pixel smartphones compatible with Android 14 as part of a future quarterly update, a Pixel Feature Drop. However, not all of them might be compatible: Google hasn’t explained in detail how the AI works, but it’s very likely that the images are generated by the smartphone and not Google’s servers. So some power would be required to use AI.
Google Pixel 8 // Source: Google
Google also hasn’t explained whether the feature will be available for all other Android smartphones, especially those not manufactured by Google. Some historic Pixel features are still exclusive and AI wallpapers could be one of them.
A feature that is also available on Chromebooks
Earlier this week, Google announced a revival for Chromebooks with the Chromebook Plus series. These are more powerful machines that unlock exclusive functions. Including AI generation of personalized wallpapers.
Some existing Chromebooks will move to the “Plus” range starting October 9th, while new ones will soon be available from Acer, HP, Lenovo and Asus.