ChromeOS

ChromeOS readies sunrise and sunset wallpapers, new video screensavers

Kyle Bradshaw | Feb 27 2023 - 10:36 am PT

Chromebooks are about to get some delightful new customization options, with Google’s ChromeOS team preparing sunrise and sunset variants of wallpapers and new video screensavers.

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With the arrival of light and dark themes, ChromeOS gained a collection of wallpapers that also change when you toggle between light and dark mode — much like every other desktop operating system offers. Now it seems the ChromeOS team is looking to take things a step farther with new wallpapers that have four different designs, depending on the current time of day.

Joining the traditional daytime and nighttime wallpaper designs, there will also be two additional designs. The first appears for a few hours after sunrise (roughly between 6am and 10am), and we predict will have a softer, more inviting appearance that’s easy on one’s eyes in the morning. The second design appears just before sunset (roughly from 4pm to 6pm) and should serve as an indicator that the workday is coming to a close.

The times mentioned above are just rough estimates of the “ideal” timings for the wallpapers. In practice, ChromeOS will schedule its wallpaper changes based the sunrise and sunset timing in your current location. That means in places that have atypical daylight schedules — areas to the far north or south, for example — ChromeOS should match the schedule appropriately.

For now, we’re not sure which — if any — current ChromeOS wallpapers will be given the sunrise/sunset treatment, or if these styles will be exclusive to a new collection. It also appears as though Google intends for Chromebooks to have matching screensavers, judging by a pair of flags that add “Time of Day” wallpapers and screensavers.

Both flags make mention of only working on “supported devices,” but so far nothing has pointed to which Chromebooks may or may not be supported.

Time of Day Wallpaper

Enables Time of Day Wallpaper feature on supported devices.
#time-of-day-wallpaper

Time of Day Screen Saver

Enables Time of Day Screen Saver feature on supported devices. Requires Time Of Day Wallpaper feature to be enabled.
#time-of-day-screen-saver

Elsewhere on the subject of screensavers, Chromebooks are also on track to gain two new video-based screensavers. Where the current collection of screensavers are animations that are rendered locally on your Chromebook, these new ones should be simple MP4 video files that play in a loop.

At the start, there will only be two video screensavers, both of which are apparently “Google-owned” videos. The first is called “New Mexico,” which suggests beautiful desert scenery, and the second has the more straightforward name “Clouds.” It’s possible that these video screensavers are related to the new “Time of Day” screensavers, but we can’t be sure just yet.

As these new sunrise/sunset wallpapers and video screensavers are only just beginning to arrive for ChromeOS, we don’t expect them to be functional until version 113 (scheduled for May 4) at the absolute earliest.