Pixel Lock Screen App Shortcuts To Support Up to 10 Apps and Work Per User (APK Teardown)

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What to know
The limit is ten, and the code is explicit about it
Where the shortcuts live, and why nothing changes until you confirm
It is not switchable yet, and it will arrive with an update
It confirms shortcuts can open an action inside an app
It reuses the lock screen slots you already have
What the picker itself will offer

What to know

Android 17 QPR2 Beta 2 caps lock screen app shortcuts at ten — a figure the on-screen text leaves blank but the code fixes outright.
Shortcuts are saved per user, and nothing changes on the lock screen until you confirm a selection.
It is not switchable yet — it will arrive with a future Android update, not a silent background rollout.
It confirms a shortcut can point at a specific action inside an app, not only at the app itself.
The work targets the two lock screen shortcut slots you already have, rather than adding a new row.

Google is preparing to let Pixel owners drop any app onto the lock screen shortcut slots, in place of the short fixed list of system actions there today. The setup text says you can create “up to” a certain number of them without ever naming the figure. The code behind that screen names it, and answers several other things the strings leave open.

About APK teardowns — An APK teardown works by reading the not-yet-shipped code inside a beta build, which lets us preview features a developer is working on before they’re announced. But work-in-progress code can change, stay hidden behind a server-side flag, or be scrapped before it ever reaches your phone.

The limit is ten, and the code is explicit about it

The setup text warns that you can only create so many shortcuts before deleting one, but it fills the number in at runtime — so the strings themselves never reveal it.

The code that loads saved shortcuts settles the question. It walks ten numbered slots, zero through nine, reading three keys for each:

app_launch_<n>_package

app_launch_<n>_class

app_launch_<n>_shortcut

A slot with no package name is skipped. Ten is a hard ceiling written into the reader itself, not a value fetched from a server, so it is unlikely to differ between phones or change without an update.

Where the shortcuts live, and why nothing changes until you confirm

Saved shortcuts go into a preferences file named app_launch_shortcuts, stored per user. A second profile on the same phone keeps its own set, and the shortcuts do not follow the device.

The code also keeps two separate lists: one you are still editing, and one you have confirmed. Changes sit in the first until they are committed to the second. That is the shape you would expect if the picker is meant to let you assemble several shortcuts and apply them together, rather than rewriting your lock screen with every tap — and it means backing out of the picker should leave things as they were.

It is not switchable yet, and it will arrive with an update

One caveat on timing: this is not a feature Google can quietly switch on in the background. The screen that picks the apps is not finished in this build, so it will turn up with a future Android update rather than appearing on its own one day — and there is no hidden toggle to force it early. That said, the parts working behind it are already complete, which is usually a sign a feature is close rather than a year away.

It confirms shortcuts can open an action inside an app

Each saved shortcut carries four fields: a key, a package name, a class name, and an optional app-shortcut ID.

That last field settles something the strings only hint at. It is the same identifier Android uses for the shortcuts you get by long-pressing an icon on the home screen — opening a specific chat, or jumping to a saved playlist. Because a lock screen entry can carry one, these shortcuts are not limited to launching an app cold; they can land you on a particular action inside it. That is why every slot reads three keys rather than two.

It reuses the lock screen slots you already have

This is not a new strip of icons. When the active shortcuts change, the code notifies the same customization provider that Wallpaper & style already uses for the two slots in the bottom corners of the lock screen — today limited to a handful of system options such as the camera, flashlight, or Wallet.

So the work points at making those existing slots accept anything you have installed, or a specific action within it, rather than adding a separate row. A companion setup entry in the same code supplies the “Create App Launch Shortcut” and “Select App” wording.

What the picker itself will offer

The interface strings describe the flow plainly. The picker is titled “Lock screen shortcuts,” the shortcut type is “App Launch,” and setting one up runs through “Create App Launch Shortcut” and “Select App.”

app_launch_quick_affordance_picker_title = “Lock screen shortcuts”

app_launch_quick_affordance_setup_enablement_action = “Select App”

app_launch_quick_affordance_setup_enablement_title = “Create App Launch Shortcut”

app_launch_quick_affordance_setup_name = “App Launch”

Two more strings cover the ceiling and how you manage what you have made: long-pressing an existing shortcut opens it for changes or removal, and a separate message appears once all ten are used.

app_launch_quick_affordance_setup_enablement_explanation = “You can create up to %1$d app launch shortcuts. You can create %2$d more shortcut(s).\nLong press on an existing app launch shortcut to configure or remove.”

app_launch_quick_affordance_setup_enablement_explanation_limit = “You have reached the maximum limit of %1$d app launch shortcuts. Please delete an existing app launch shortcut first.\nLong press on an existing app launch shortcut to configure or remove.”

The picker also sorts apps and marks which ones carry their own in-app shortcuts, so apps offering deeper targets can be expanded rather than just placed as they are.

None of this is reachable yet, and a feature still in progress can always be cut before release. But a complete supporting layer, rather than a half-written one, suggests this is further along than a first appearance in the code usually implies. We’ll watch future Pixel builds to see when Google turns it on.