Hey there, my first phone was a google pixel 2 and I loved that thing. I am currently using an IPhone 15 plus and am about to switch back to android and have been thinking about my old pixel a lot and thinking if I want to get this or a Samsung Galaxy. I know the hardware is not as good as on Samsung so gaming is mostly a no go but I mainly just game on my PC so it really isn't an issue for me. Are there any cool features on google pixel that are not on any other phone that I might care about?

My free year is coming to the end and I'm torn if I should do the 19.99 a month. 5tb of cloud storage is the main reason, but I have found myself using the A.I occasionally. Anybody else?

Already 4+ years. Did anyone find a workaround solution to that problem (without stitching)?

I'm curious why those of us sticking with Pixel devices continue to choose Pixel over other devices. I still feel like it's the best software experience on a smartphone, though iOS has closed the gap over time.

I was just underwhelmed by the Pixel 11 Pro series this year. Hilight seems half-baked and not all that useful even when fully baked. Reduced RAM and increased prices didn't help either. But I welcomed the new modem and new photography capabilities.

Just has me looking to greener pastures, but honestly day to day, Pixel delivers!

Why do y'all stay?

I thought of one!

Somehow if I can launch the Pixel Launcher from third-party launchers, then bubble apps, then come back, it would be very helpful.

But that also seems not possible.

I want to discuss it here; someone must have faced the same thing as me, right?

Bubbles are not possible with the recents menu either! (I have given feedback to Google from About phone > Feedback multiple times.)

I have bought many third-party launchers just to later figure out I cannot multitask via bubbles :( Android is getting restricted day by day :( Don't even know what will happen after January 1, 2027. Anyway, for this...

Possible workaround, please? Instead of changing default home apps all the time?

Device: P11P with A17

Follow up on another subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HowToMen/s/7lctJYPWj8

Has a video attached too.

I need genuine help. Someone might have faced the same and there must be something I can do other than abandoning my desired launcher.

Is Android becoming iOS or what? I miss One UI/ColorOS now. WtH Google :(

As the title says, I updated my phone (Pixel 7) in September or August) and it ruined it. It's lagging and freezing and there's nothing I can do about it. I removed as many apps as possible, freed space but nothing works. My phone gets slow sometimes and none of the recent fixes have done anything to make it better. I want to get a new phone at some point but this update thing is just throwing me off Pixels and I freaking love Pixel phones 😢

I am a Pixel true believer, so I'm not bashing my history of Pixel phones (2, 4, 6a, 8a, 11), but when people say the camera is so great, what are we comparing it to? I feel like the past couple of years, when I zoom in, there's a lot of "processing" of the image to the point that true detail is lost. I'm comparing that to full-frame DSLR and mirrorless cameras that I use, so it's probably not a fair comparison. Honestly, phones are super for the snapshots of daily life that we all love and took (on a more limited basis) with film, but when I need a "real" photo, I'm definitely choosing the "real" camera.

I'm humble enough that if I'm missing something, I'm happy to learn if I'm missing out on some camera controls or features. I do use the Pixel camera settings for things like exposure, contrast, white balance, etc., but the fuzziness or blending that the camera does (seen when zooming in) is weird. It even prevented me from recording a small detail in a photo--an airliner was silhouetted against a beautiful sunset. The final photo rendered the sunset just fine, but the airliner was apparently too small for the camera to record it, and when I zoomed in, I couldn't even see an artifact of the airplane.

Switched to Dev/Beta firmware/update branch about 8-10 months back, to hopefully resolve an issue I was having. At the time I switched, I read something that you could switch back to stable, and just want for a release to update (so you didn't have to wipe the phone completely to switch back).

Is this not the case now, as I've switch back (on my Google Dashboard) a few months ago, and have yet to receive an update (all updates want me to wipe).

*Maybe now the mods don't delete my post again*

I have never been so furious at a piece of technology in my entire life. I was literally in the middle of nowhere, my phone died, and I desperately needed Google Maps to navigate. Instead of being a reliable tool, my Pixel turned into an expensive, flashing brick because of a fundamentally broken software design flaw.

Who in their right mind programmed these phones to force a full system boot the absolute millisecond they detect a charger at 0%?

I plugged the dead phone into my car charger. Because a full Android system boot requires a massive, instantaneous spike in power, the low-wattage car outlet couldn't keep up. The phone forced itself to turn on, ran out of juice halfway through the Google logo, crashed, turned off, detected the charger again, and got stuck in an endless, permanent boot loop. It was actively fighting against its own hardware just to stay broken.

Your developers clearly sit in comfortable offices testing these devices on premium high-wattage wall bricks. They completely ignored real-world emergencies where people have to rely on standard vehicle chargers or older portable power banks.

Forcing an immediate auto-boot instead of letting the phone sit quietly in a low-power offline state to build up a basic charge is a massive safety hazard. You are locking people out of emergency communications when they are at their most vulnerable.

I was ready to smash this phone against a rock and drive straight to an Apple or Samsung store (when i found my way back to home using the ancient abillity of celestial navigation). Stop letting your developers prioritize useless "convenience" over basic user safety and hardware reality.

This has been an issue for a month or two now. Whenever there's a song that Now Playing doesn't pick up automatically, I used to be able to tap the button and it would recognize it. Now, any time I tap the button, it just shows "Unable to identify song" only about a second after tapping it. It was not like this before, and the Google app itself can always identify the music with no issue. And I'm not trying to identify songs that would only be on YouTube or anything like that, I've tried using it with the radio and some shows.

Edit: I'm having an issue with the device I paid for with a feature that used to work with no issue. Why am I getting downvoted for asking for support?

I hate these recent changes.

Pixel 9 purchased from T-Mobile. I owed $290 for the phone. Magenta Max 60 + plan. I switched carriers to AT&T purchased a Galaxy Fold 7. AT&T payes off my Pixel 9 from being disconnected from T-Mobile for 2 months. I need to bootloader unlock to install GrapheneOS and developer reasons. OEM unlocking is grayed out. I tried a.few known fixes like factory reset full. Then sending the dialer code. Didn't work.

Cannot trigger the OTA update after leaving the Android 16 beta. Trying to accomplish this with your PC central tomorrow

Help would be appreciated

Hello

I recently upgraded from a pixel 6 to a pixel 8. I got the pixel 8 refurbished in fair condition and I really hope I didn't lose out in this purchase. My pixel 8 is incredibly slow. The keyboard is super laggy and types letters nowhere near where I'm typing. If I play a video on YouTube in any quality above 1080p the whole phone lags, freezes up and shuts off. When scrolling through apps like Tiktok. YouTube or Instagram it does the same thing that it does in YouTube. When I go to take a screenshot there's a delay of upwards of 8 seconds. Other than that the phone works fine for phone calls. Sending texts and taking pictures or videos with the camera. Not sure if there's a potential hardware or software issue happening here.

If anyone has had similar issues I'd really love to know how you fixed it or if you just had to get a new phone altogether. Thanks

Hello,

When I bought my pixel 9pro xl it included a 12 month trial. I waited to redeem it because it really wasn't too useful around the time. When I got my pixel 10pro xl it also came with another 12 month trial. I decided to finally redeem the original trial on my 10pro and have been on it for the past 12 months. I was planning on redeeming the 10pro trial now that I bought the 11pro XL but now it's missing from my offers and only shows the 6 month one that came with this phone. I reached out to Google support because Gemini says they have to manually apply it but all i got was a rep that kept sending me a web page over and over related to the pixel 11 trial. Has anyone here been able to redeem theirs? I tried Google and using Gemini and got the following response and sent that to the chat rep and she actively seemed to ignore it. This seems like it should be fairly easy to fix.

Gemini response

I have a Pixel 9 Pro and frequently use the pinning feature before passing my phone to another person.

Recently, the pin function stopped requiring a passcode when removing the pin. I did a restart, double checked the setting indicates a passcode is required when removing the pin...is there something else I should be checking?

Now when an app is pinned, you just have to hold and swipe up, and the phone is completely unlocked for the user to access the phone.

I tried looking it up, and it said it would be in wallpaper & style settings, but I do not see the option to change app icons from round to square. Any way to change it on this model? Please and thank you.

Anyone have suggestions?

It seems my phone has finally gotten around to updating some features and uh, wth?? I used to be able to pull up search, type storage, and see my phone device storage! Same with notifications settings. Or dev tools. Now it either goes to the web, or sends me to a bloated built in tutorial telling me ABOUT features but not how to get to them.

Please tell me I'm just doing something wrong, or there's a setting I can fix, or they just moved it? Cause this is objectively worse by every single measurable metric.

Related rant you can ignore: I know it's been happening for ages, but how do things just keep getting worse? Losing my headphone jack, the squeeze feature, the small size option, the assistant, etc etc etc. but at least the camera was good. Recently went back and looked at some pictures I took with my Pixel 2. Holy shit. They're all better than anything I've taken with a 4a and up. All of them.

It takes so much longer to do simple tasks and needs permissions for everything. I would love to not give an AI agent access to my entire Google drive, email, everything etc just to add milk to the grocery list. Im livid all the time and never had any issues with assistant and never found myself wanting anything boring assistant couldn't do I just wanna set a timer man I don't need you to kiss my ass. I hate not being able to opt out of AI usage. I would give my left nut for boring assistant back.

My Pixel 10 Pro XL keeps becoming partly unresponsive. I can pull down the notification shade, but tapping notifications and Quick Settings does nothing. Sometimes I also can’t tap to end a call.

Restarting temporarily fixes it, but it keeps coming back. Some days I’m restarting five or six times just to use my phone. It started after an update and happens randomly, including at home, not just while using Android Auto.

I’ve already factory-reset the phone and restored my backup. I tried Safe Mode briefly, but not long enough to say whether the problem happens there too. I’m not using a screen-lock automation app.

I’ve been dealing with Google support for weeks and supplied evidence. Their latest response points me toward out-of-warranty repair, like that is going to fix a software issue. Before paying a shop, I’d like to know whether anyone with these same symptoms has actually identified the cause or found a lasting fix.

If you solved it, what exactly worked, what phone/build are you on, and how long has it stayed fixed? Has anyone had a repair shop diagnose this successfully?

I rely on this phone for work, so “just restart it” really isn’t a solution.

Want to add that support has been absolutely and completely useless.

Hey, so I'm having a few issues trying to get RCS up and running. It'll be stuck on connecting indefinitely I'm not sure if it's a phone issue or network issue, but I've tried the basic troubleshooting and nothing seems to have worked. If anyone has any ideas/fixes they're greatly appreciated!

Title of post. I have my apps laid out on my home screen and now I see duplicate icons because of the pinned predictions of your recently used apps. I can't figure out how to remove this feature - any ideas?

I get a glimpse of what was said. If I click on it, rather than expanding, I get a recording of the call. The caller's voice was not recorded in the audio. And I don't see any transcript of what was said either

Important call. Need to figure out a work around to read that transcript

Ciao a tutti,

vorrei condividere la mia esperienza con l'assistenza Google in merito al mio Pixel 8 e al Programma di riparazione estesa, perché sono estremamente deluso da come è stata gestita l'intera vicenda.

Ho contattato l'assistenza Google per capire se il mio Pixel 8 fosse idoneo alla riparazione nell'ambito del Programma di riparazione estesa.

Ecco cosa è successo:

• 20 ottobre: dopo aver sottoposto il mio caso a un team di assistenza di livello superiore, Google mi ha consigliato di avviare autonomamente la richiesta di riparazione, assicurandomi esplicitamente che il costo stimato visualizzato dal sistema non mi sarebbe stato addebitato.
• 22 ottobre: ho contattato nuovamente l'assistenza per chiarire la situazione. L'operatrice mi ha confermato che, qualora il centro riparazioni avesse riscontrato danni non coperti dalla garanzia, Google mi avrebbe contattato prima di procedere con qualsiasi addebito. Mi è stato inoltre detto che, se il danno fosse stato coperto, la riparazione sarebbe stata gratuita.
• Sempre il 22 ottobre: ho cercato di ottenere l'etichetta di spedizione e i documenti necessari per inviare il telefono. Nonostante le ripetute richieste, ho ricevuto istruzioni confuse, email prive degli allegati necessari e persino indicazioni relative a una procedura di sostituzione anziché a una normale riparazione. L'operatrice si è scusata, promettendo di inoltrare il problema e di inviarmi successivamente l'etichetta di spedizione via email.
• 27 ottobre: Google mi ha finalmente comunicato che il problema specifico del mio Pixel 8 non rientrava nel Programma di riparazione estesa. Nella stessa email, Google ha riconosciuto di avermi fornito informazioni incoerenti e si è scusata per la confusione.

Ho quindi chiesto a Google di valutare una soluzione commerciale ragionevole, come uno sconto significativo sulla riparazione o un contributo alle spese, considerando le informazioni contraddittorie ricevute e il tempo perso nel seguire le istruzioni dell'assistenza.

Purtroppo, la risposta è stata sostanzialmente un'altra scusa, seguita dalla conferma del rifiuto. Non mi è stata proposta alcuna soluzione alternativa.

Il problema principale non è semplicemente che Google abbia rifiutato di riparare il mio telefono nell'ambito del programma. Capisco che esistano requisiti specifici per accedere a questi programmi. Ciò che mi lascia profondamente insoddisfatto è aver ricevuto istruzioni per avviare la procedura di riparazione, rassicurazioni sui possibili costi, aver perso tempo cercando di ottenere i documenti di spedizione e aver scoperto soltanto in seguito che il dispositivo non era idoneo.

Se il mio telefono non era idoneo, perché non è stato chiarito prima di invitarmi a procedere?

Ho conservato tutta la corrispondenza via email e la trascrizione completa della chat, che documentano quanto accaduto.

A questo punto, ho perso fiducia nell'assistenza Google. Una comunicazione chiara e coerente dovrebbe essere il minimo indispensabile, soprattutto quando si chiede a un cliente di seguire una procedura di riparazione che potrebbe comportare dei costi.

Qualcun altro ha avuto esperienze simili con il Programma di riparazione estesa di Google o con l'assistenza Pixel? Siete riusciti a ottenere una rivalutazione del caso da parte di qualcuno che potesse proporre una soluzione concreta?

Mi farebbe piacere conoscere le vostre esperienze o ricevere consigli su come procedere per portare la questione a un livello superiore.

Grazie a tutti per aver letto.

This is my first Pixel after 8 Samsungs in a row, and it's been a letdown from day one.

My first phone had the white screen defect and had to be replaced. The replacement was fine until the latest update. Before that I got a full day of heavy use. Now I'm lucky to get 8 hours, and right after the update it was dying in a few.

What I've tried:

·       Diagnostics say the charging is "Normal"

·       Turned off Adaptive Charging (it kept stopping at 50% overnight)

·       Turned off weather on the Always-On Display

·       Restricted background use for my most-used apps

·       Cleared cache and storage for Google Play Services and Device Health Services

·       Restarted it more times than I can count

While better, I still don’t a full day of use out of this phone. I lost about 45% in under an hour just playing music, and it still drains fast sitting idle. How does this happen with a “flagship” product?

Is anyone else seeing this on the current build? Has anyone fixed it without a factory reset? I'm not wiping my phone every time an update comes out.

I've seen the 11 being offered basically free, but after this I'm not sure I want another Pixel. Is it any better, or is this just how Pixels are? I’m strongly considering ditching Pixel all together.