The new Nexus 6 is a powerful smartphone with lots of features thanks to Google and Motorola, but one thing a few users will want to disable is something called Ambient Display. With Android 5.0 Lollipop, Google added a new feature for the lock screen that shows small notification previews instead of a boring notification LED light.
It’s a nice plugin, but it needs some tweaks and improvements before it becomes something I’d leave enabled. Ambient Display works similarly to Moto Display and gives users small black and white notifications that vibrate on the screen even before unlocking the device. However, I accidentally unlock my phone all the time and even enjoyed some mobile calling sessions thanks to Ambient Display.
According to Google and the settings menu, the Ambient display will “wake the screen when the device is picked up or when notifications arrive”, which is a nice touch and picking up your phone will give you a nice, low-power black and white preview of notifications. With a single tap, the screen lights up for you to interact with notifications. Read on for more details as well as why and how to disable Ambient Display on Nexus 6.
When you pick up the Nexus 6, you’ll see a black and white preview of notifications. Something more user friendly and useful than LED notification light. It works great and I use it all the time. It does the same thing when notifications arrive. With one tap the screen will be fully illuminated and double taps can unlock these notifications directly.
The way Android 5.0 Lollipop handles lock screen notifications is great, but I had a few issues with Ambient Display enabled. When a notification arrives and the screen lights up, my hand (or trouser pocket) touches the screen and it opens. I accidentally cleared email notifications and even unwittingly made a few mobile calls.
Ambient Display is very useful and an excellent feature that I don’t want to disable, but about a week later I disabled it on my Nexus 6 and some other owners may want to do the same. A PIN or screen password prevents it from opening apps or making mobile calls, otherwise we’ll have to disable the feature until Google releases an update or changes the way the Ambient screen works.
Instructions
As I said above, I don’t want to disable this useful feature but I feel I need it. It also drains the battery quite a bit, especially if the screen is accidentally turned all the way up in your pocket or handbag, we’ve had it turn off completely.
If you don’t want to use Ambient Display on Nexus 6 (or other devices support it once again) you need to go to settings and disable it. Luckily it’s pretty easy, you won’t get neat previews of your notifications anymore.
To get started, swipe down the notification bar twice (or with two fingers) and tap the gear-shaped settings button. From here go to Display and you will find the setting you need.
From here all users have to do is tap on the Ambient Display setting and toggle the switch to turn it off. That’s all, you’re done. This will prevent the screen from illuminating when you hold it in your hand, and incoming notifications will not vibrate the screen. Based on these app instructions you will still get a quick preview for some notifications but the rest will not turn on your screen.
This used to be one of my favorite new features of Android 5.0 Lollipop and Nexus 6, but I’ve since disabled it. Hopefully an update or new options can change some behavior otherwise this is a feature I would leave off.
Stay tuned for more details on the Nexus 6 and lots of news in the near future.
