GoL Screensaver1.2

GoL Screensaver turns an Android display into a living Conway’s Game of Life scene when the wallpaper job runs, giving an otherwise idle screen evolving cellular patterns. Designed for Onyx Boox devices and other Android users, it lets people set the simulation’s starting state and visual appearance, including on color e-ink displays.

Separate foreground and background color controls are tailored to color e-ink screens, while a pattern picker supplies familiar Game of Life starting configurations. Android may refresh the screensaver automatically, but each update occurs at most once every 15 minutes and only when the battery is sufficient. An optional read-only calendar layer can show upcoming events from selected synced calendars, with controls for the look-ahead period, position, and size. Calendar access is optional; event details are not cached, settings do not transfer to another device, and private events appear as “Busy” while titles can be visible on the lock screen. Calendar content refreshes during the normal wallpaper job or while the app is open.

Version 1.2 adds layers, additional Game of Life rules and boundary modes, RLE pattern import, automatic reseeding, full-screen previews, calendar overlays, translations, and improved BOOX settings, along with UI, performance, and reliability fixes. These features suit e-ink owners, Game of Life enthusiasts, and anyone wanting a configurable ambient display instead of a static image.

GoL Screensaver is open-source Android software in the System Tools category, available through F-Droid or by building the project from source. It requires Android 10 or later and supports arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a, x86_64, and x86 devices. After installation, the app should be launched, and freezing must be disabled at Settings > Apps & Notifications > Freeze Settings > GoL Wallpaper (OFF) for self-updating to work.