How to manage the screen lock on your Android smartphone

Customizing the screen lock settings you can display useful information even with your smartphone locked. Here's how to do it

We'll have to wait a few more weeks, most likely a few more months, before we see it arrive on the screens of our Android smartphones. But as soon as the Ambient Mode of Android 10 will be distributed on a large scale, the devices with the operating system of the green robot will turn into a kind of portable smart screen and always ready to help us.

The "Ambient" mode, in fact, is designed to show on the display of the phone of the information that Google Assistant believes can be useful in that moment. Not only notifications, but also weather updates, latest news and much more. At the moment, however, Ambient Mode is only available on two Lenovo tablets and two Nokia smartphones, and it's not known when the testing phase will end and the large-scale distribution phase will begin.

While you're waiting, you can customize the lock screen of your Android smartphone so you can get a taste of how your device's user experience might change with Ambient Mode.

Showing notifications on Android lock screen

First of all, you need to enable (if they aren't already) notifications on lock screen. That way we can see a preview of the messages and emails we receive without having to unlock the device. To do this, just open the device's Settings (the app with the gear icon, of course), click on Apps and Notifications and then Notifications.

Scroll down the screen until you find the "Lock Screen Notifications" section and enable the option. Here you will be able to choose which notifications to show (all or only the most important ones) and which apps will be able to pop up notifications on the lock screen. And that's not all: for each app you can customize which content to show as notifications and which not, so you won't be constantly bothered by uninteresting content.

Display personal information on the Android lock screen

In addition to notifications, you can also display more personal information on the screen regarding email, travel and flight information, reminders and other items. In this case, we should ask for "help" from Google Assistant, which will let you display customized items on the lock screen and interact with the phone even when it is locked.

First of all, you have to activate Big G's digital assistant, drag the tab up so that it occupies the entire screen and click on your profile photo. This will take you to the personal settings of "your" Google Assistant. From here you should look for the Assistant Devices section and click on the line for your phone. In the Personalization section, look for the item "Personal results on lock screen" and activate the option.

You will then need to activate the Sign in with Voice Match option, so that you can activate Google Assistant with the "OK Google" command even when the screen is locked or while you are using other apps.