Ambient Mode will work when your phone is charging and is designed to turn your device into a glanceable screen that surfaces information in much the same way the Google Nest Hub does.
In the above video, product manager Arvind Chandrababu explains that the mode will come to select Android phones and tablets running Android 8.0 and above but doesn’t confirm which. It’s notable that the video does not use a Pixel phone to show Ambient Mode working, signalling that non-Google phones should be getting this soon.
The Nokia 6.2 and 7.2 are confirmed to receive the mode, which will also let you display your recent photos in a slideshow, again like the Nest Hub. Ambient Mode should be rolling out soon to Android devices, but it might be up to the manufacturer as to whether it’s included – many phones still don’t have Google’s Digital Wellbeing feature despite it being integrated with Android 9 Pie.
Digital Wellbeing is available as a standalone app, but in the video Ambient Mode is described as “deeply integrated” into Android, so we expect it to be baked in on the devices it does come to.
For devices that are supported, here’s how to use Google Assistant’s Ambient Mode on Android.
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.
