Digital Wellbeing will be able to dim your Android 13 wallpaper at night [Update: Enabled]

The latest Digital Wellbeing feature coming soon to Android 13 devices is the ability for Bedtime Mode to dim your wallpaper.

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in the case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

Bedtime mode: dark theme and wallpaper dimming

On Android today, Google has provided a full suite of features to help discourage the use of your phone at night, or at the very least make nighttime use less straining on the eyes. With Bedtime Mode, a big part of Google’s Digital Wellbeing suite, you can already use a schedule to put your phone into grayscale, disable Always-On Display, and activate Do Not Disturb.

In Android 13, we’ve found that Google has been working on the ability to dim your phone’s wallpaper. This capability briefly went public in an Android code change we spotted a few months back before it was removed, and our Dylan Roussel has managed to enable it on an Android 13 Beta device. Below, you’ll see a few examples of a wallpaper being dimmed, ranging from 0% (disabled) to 100% (fully black).

With the latest beta update to Digital Wellbeing, we find our first indications of how Android 13’s wallpaper dimming effect will be put to use.

<string name=”wallpaper_dimming_item_label”>Dim the wallpaper</string>

More specifically, wallpaper dimming will come as an optional new feature of Digital Wellbeing’s Bedtime Mode as one of the many ways to darken your screen at night to be easier on the eyes. At this time, we’re not sure by what percentage your Android 13 wallpaper will be dimmed.

<string name=”dark_screen_options_label”>Screen options at bedtime</string>

<string name=”dark_screen_options_description”>Keep the screen dark, dim the wallpaper, and more</string>

In an alternate bit of in-app text that’s likely to be shown on devices not yet running Android 13, we learn that Bedtime Mode will also be able to make your device “use a dark background.” Based on another bit of text, this seems to just be referring to turning on Android’s built-in dark mode.

<string name=”dark_screen_options_description_without_dimming”>Keep the screen dark, use a dark background, and more</string>

<string name=”dark_theme_item_description”>Use a black background</string>

Update 5/10: Our Dylan Roussel was able to offer a preview of these new features for Digital Wellbeing’s Bedtime Mode in action. As Bedtime Mode is gaining a broader set of options, the app is being updated to declutter the main settings page by giving Bedtime Mode its own page.

Here you’ll find the full suite of Bedtime Mode features including automatic dark mode and Android 13’s wallpaper dimming. With a bit of testing, we find that the wallpaper is dimmed by 60% when Bedtime Mode is active.

As of today, while Android does offer ways to schedule dark themes based on sunset and sunrise — and we’ve seen signs of Bedtime-based scheduling in Android 13 — these new options for Bedtime Mode do not seem to be live yet on our devices running the Android 13 Beta.

Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.

Dylan Roussel contributed to this article.