What do you want to know
- Android already has an accessibility feature called “extra dim” that allows your phone’s screen to become darker than usual.
- Now, with Android 15, Google appears to be working on an “even dimmer” option that could make it easier to use your phone at lower brightness levels than usually possible.
- Although the “extra dim” feature must be set each time you want to use it, the new “even dim” feature may affect Android’s built-in adaptive brightness setting.
Android 15 could give you more control over your phone’s minimum brightness, as spotted by Android Authority in Android 15 Beta 1 code. A new setting is referenced in code strings called “same dimmer,” and it’s related to your phone’s brightness settings. Android already has an option called “extra dim” that must be manually enabled every time you want to use it.
Unfortunately, the best Android phones don’t give you full control over the brightness level of your smartphone. You can set preferences like adaptive brightness or adjust the actual brightness slider; However, phones are still limited to the minimum and maximum brightness settings set by the manufacturer. In many cases, these minimums do not correspond to the lowest brightness level your phone’s screen is capable of.
This might change with the newly discovered setting. According to the report, the option will be located under the Adaptive Brightness toggle on the App Display page of Android 15 Settings. This setting, however, is not actually visible in the current Android 15 beta, so the feature “ even weaker” is not yet certain. In the code strings, Google says the feature will “allow the device to become darker than usual.”
Another explanation Android Authority found in the Android Open Source Project flag related to “even dimmer” states that it will be used “to extend the brightness below.” [the] traditional range.”
Based on how the feature is described, the folks at Android Authority think that “even weaker” might be functionally different from “extra weak.” Although the “very dim” option is a manual setting that should be used intentionally whenever you need a very dark phone screen, choosing “even dimmer” could affect the adaptive brightness settings. In practice, this means users can set and forget this toggle in the Android 15 settings app.
The AOSP description seems to support this theory, as the phrase “extending the range” of your phone’s brightness suggests that brightness levels are always variable.
However, this is all just speculation, so we’ll have to wait for future Android 15 betas that might include this feature operationally. If it does indeed appear in the final version of Android 15, “even dimmer” would make your Android phone easier on the eyes in dark lighting situations, although depending on how it works, it could be a headache for people sensitive to PWM.