How does ambient display work on the Nexus 6P?

[sstephen17]

Not liking the ambient display so I disabled it. It tends to stay on when I don't want to.

 

[jhnstn00]

I just don't understand why the Nexus team didn't just copy the same code from Motorola when they owned them. Such a waste of an almost perfect notification system. Props to Moto coders for that design and implementation.

 

[syspry]

A few questions:

1. Can you nudge the device to activate this. i.e. if it is on table and I displace the phone a long the table will it wake the device?

2. Does it pulse on and off? I seem to hear mix things about this.

3. Does it reliably come on when you pull the phone out of your pocket?

1. Nope, that's a Moto thing
2. Yes a few times then it stops, it doesn't pulse endlessly.
3. In my experience it has so far

That's pretty much all I need to keep me happy but I guess that bothers a few people who want it more like the Moto X. I'm able to get it to come on pretty reliably when picked up off of a flat surface too by just holding it vertically.

 

[tbrady8]

I know if the proximity sensor is blocked, ambient display won't come on at all. Hopefully a future update will bring a Moto peek type feature.

 

[Michael Polsinelli]

I really appreciate this thread. I switched to the 6p a few days ago from the Moto X 2014 and really miss the active display features. There is a lot to like with the 6P, but if I wasn't with Google Fi, I would be seriously considering swapping the Nexus for the Moto X Pure.

 

[LeoRex]

This is all sad news this makes my choice between the 6P and Moto Pure 2015 even harder.

I dunno... I know a couple of people who've owned both, both emphatically will say the 6P is the better phone. AD on the 6P isn't as reliable as the 6, but whatever, there are so many other good things about the phone, it's the least of my worries, and I really liked AD.

By the way, it's just a software issue, they seemed to have set the motion sensitivity to trigger it far too high... On some AOSP ROMs, it's a lot more sensitive. So it'll get addressed in an upcoming update, I'm sure.

 

[jaytv]

When you pull it out of your pocket, or pick it up, just do a quick twist of the wrist like the camera gesture on the Moto X, and ambient lights up every time. Never fails.

 

[Nlara]

Yes! Thank you! Nonymous666

 

[Nlara]

While in a boring meeting at work, today, here's what I think I figured out about the ambient display...

I think the ambient display won't come until my phone has locked itself. i.e., I have my phone set so that it won't lock until 2 minutes after I turn off the screen. So, if I turn off the screen and put it down on the table, I'm unable to get the ambient display to kick in until two minutes have elapsed and the phone becomes locked. (If that's true, then I have no idea what that means to an phone that uses no lockscreen.)

To get the ambient display to kick in, I have to lift the phone to a nearly 90 degree angle from its resting position. (Maybe 75, maybe 80; sorry I didn't have protractor with me at this meeting ) Nudging it doesn't do a thing. Lifting it up partially to, say, a 30 degree angle won't do a thing. Gotta just grab it and lift it to be perpendicular to what its resting position was. When I repeatedly did that, I could get the ambient display to reliably come on every time. Didn't matter if I was lifting it sideways (so I was holding it in landscape, or if I lifted vertically (so I was holding it in portrait) - either way worked.

Yes! Thank you! I really missed Attentive Display in my Moto X. Ambient Display is not as good, but knowing how it works, it's not as bad. I spoke with a Project Fi tech about this and he had me download a screen calibration app which didn't really fix anything, for there was nothing to fix! He didn't know how it really works. Thank you Nonymous666

 

[LeoRex]

Yes! Thank you! Nonymous666

By the way, the latest update loosened things up quite a lot, AD fires much easier.