Bring motion-activated ambient notifications to your phone with Ambi-Turner

Google Pixel owners can now benefit from advanced ambient notifications features thanks to free app Ambi-Turner. When activated, Ambi-Turner lights up the smartphone display to reveal recent notifications when you pick up the phone from your pocket or from the desk.

Ambient notifications were in place on the Nexus 6 – developed by Motorola, who created the feature on its other devices under the banner Moto Display. But the next generations of Google’s devices – Nexus 6P, 5X, and Pixel/XL – lost the ability to detect when you picked up the phone or made a wave gesture.

Ambi-Turner brings this ability back, waking the device when a notification is received, when the device is taken out of a pocket, or when it’s flipped face-up. Since it works automatically, there’s also no need to press the home button or fingerprint scanner to view the notifications.

Ambi-Turner is available for free or you can pay 99 cents to access additional features like wave-to-wake and tilt-to-wake. Though it doesn’t require root, the app only works on devices running Android 6.0 and upwards, and it’s designed for stock Android. Phones running third-party skins may encounter problems.

Ambient notifications is something of a sought-after feature thanks to its battery life benefits and accessibility. Earlier this year, we wrote a guide on getting ambient notifications on Android devices. If you want a quick solution on a compatible device, don’t miss Ambi-Turner.