If you’ve ever found yourself annoyed at the way Android displays certain UI elements in landscape mode, then there’s some good news for you. It looks like Android 15 could better optimize your phone’s UI and make landscape mode less of a disorganized mess.
This comes from Mishaal Rahman over at Android Authority, who found that the Quick Settings panel and lock screen has been reorganized in Android 15. All to make better use of the wider screen space afforded by landscape orientation. This should mean less wasted space and a more visually pleasing look.
Android 14’s Quick Settings menu looks more or less the same in portrait and landscape orientation. The difference is that in landscape the menu is stretched sideways to fill up the entire screen. According to Rahman this will be changing, with Android 15 opting for something more akin to what Android 14 tablet users already see.
That means we may well see a side-by-side approach to the pull-down menu in Android 15. Quick Settings on the left, and then notifications on the right every time you open the menu while your phone is in landscape mode. Rahman claims that this version of the Quick Settings menu does exist, but it’s apparently unfinished and rather buggy.
But that’s not all. Rahamn also claims that we could see a new landscape lock screen interface. While this was first spotted in the Android 14 QPR1 Beta last year, it never made it to a stable version of Android. In fact Android has never had a landscape lock screen on smartphones in its 16-year existence.
Android has never had a landscape lock screen on smartphones in its 16-year existence.
Android 15 may see the lock screen reorient itself to match the rest of the phone. Again, the screen Rahman shows looks a lot like the one you’ll find on Android tablets like the Pixel Tablet — with a PIN screen on the left and a number pad on the right.
Here’s hoping that this is just the start of Google’s landscape-mode optimizations with Android. There are plenty of places that are either lacking landscape orientations, or just straight-up don’t look good. We’ll just have to wait and see what else Android 15 has in store for us.
