Through evidence spotted in the latest Android Canary release, it looks like Google is preparing a new Pixel feature that would let users theme their homescreen icons using AI as well as their own custom styles.
As it stands today, Google Pixel owners have a few choices for customizing the icons on their homescreen. You can use Google’s “Themed Icons” feature that will apply Material You color themes to icons, though only on supported apps. You can use third-party apps to make custom shortcuts on the homescreen (similar to how iPhone users themed their icons in the past). Or, the tried and true, you can download a third-party launcher and utilize a host of additional theming options, including a vast number of icon packs available in the Play Store.
Soon, though, it appears Google wants to add a few more options out of the box for Pixel owners.
In the latest Android Canary build, the folks over at Android Authority uncovered some tidbits about new icon styles coming to Google Pixel devices in the future. In particular, the “Style” section would call existing themed icons “Minimal,” and add new “AI icon” and “Create” options.
The strings regarding this say:
Style
Default
Minimal
AI icon
Create
So, yeah, details are pretty light at the moment. That said, we can take a guess on a few details here. The “AI icon” theme is called an “extendible theme” in the string, implying that it uses AI to bring a theme beyond what’s already available. That might suggest this option could allow apps that don’t support Android’s dynamic icons to still be included in a theme, or perhaps expand the style beyond just colors.
“Create” is a bit more exciting here, as it implies a greater level of user control. What might that include? At the moment, your guess is as good as ours. I’m personally hoping it’s something in the realm of the “Effects” theming options now available for wallpapers. It’s also possible this could include changing icon shapes, as we saw some progress on that a while back.
What would you want to see?
As for when these features might debut, we really don’t know. Android Canary isn’t tied to any single version of Android, and seeing as these features can’t even be manually enabled behind the scenes, this could be something that’s a few months away, if not much longer.
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