Paul Jones / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Huawei’s flagship Pura 80 Ultra features 3D interactive lock screens that move in sync with the phone’s physical movement.
- The interactive lock screens also function as games, utilizing hand and eye-tracking features to manipulate objects.
- While the hand and eye-tracking gestures likely utilize the phone’s front camera, there is no usage indicator, which raises privacy concerns.
Android phones have always offered comprehensive customization options for the lock screen. In Android’s early days, you could use third-party lockscreen or active display apps to replace the dull default screen; this has since been replaced by support for various lockscreen media apps or carousels. But certain brands always tend to go overboard and create something that lies at the intersection of fascinating and absurd. That’s precisely what Huawei is doing with its interactive lock screen on specific flagship devices.
Interactive lock screens aren’t new to Android. At some point, we must have all interacted with lock screens on old Samsung phones that had a ripple effect following our finger’s movement across the screen. However, Huawei is taking it a step further by embedding interactive games into its already interactive 3D lock screen. YouTuber Arun Maini, colloquially known as Mrwhosetheboss, recently posted a video on X, showing an interactive lock screen game on a Huawei Pura 80 Ultra flagship phone. The lock screen features an array of basketballs that move around the screen in response to the phone’s physical movement.
Would you want something like that on your phone?
Would you want this wild Huawei lock screen on your Android phone?
20 votes
Maini also demonstrates how moving the phone up and down induces a depth effect, making it appear as though the basketballs are actually inside a transparent 3D box. But that’s not the most fascinating part. You can actually flick your hands in the air in front of the phone for a quick game of swish basketball.
My colleague Paul Jones was able to try out the feature on their Pura 80 Ultra unit. In addition to the basketball game, they confirmed there are at least two more lock screen games. That includes one where a bunch of spherical emoji heads float around the screen with the phone’s movement, just like the basketballs, but without the swish game. Meanwhile, another interactive screen lets you play tennis, but instead of using your hands to move the racket, you just use your eyes to glide the ball. Have a look:
The tennis game was also present on the previous generation, i.e., the Pura 70 Ultra. Although fascinating, Huawei’s hand and eye tracking features for the interactive games have a scary side too. Paul confirmed that while there is no information on how these games work, they unquestionably rely on the front camera. However, while that happens, no indicator for the camera’s usage appears on the screen.
That evokes a big question about Huawei’s transparency regarding the use of the front camera, whether it is while engaging with the game or using the phone otherwise. It leaves room for privacy concerns and questions about the extent to which Huawei phones may be accessing the phone’s cameras (or other sensors, such as the microphone, for that matter) without the users’ knowledge.
In addition to those concerns, the feature is likely to guzzle the phone’s battery much more quickly.
Would you still want to try it despite those concerns? Share your vote in the poll above, or tell us in the comments below.
