10 Useful Hidden Features on Your Google Pixel Phone
The new Google Pixel phone has some impressive features. His camera takes wonderful detailed photos. It comes with Google Assistant, a virtual assistant tool that’s actually useful . The Pixel also has some less obvious features worth exploring.
Free up space with quick access
Some applications have shortcuts. Long press on their icons on the home screen will give you a list of quick actions for that app. For example, press and hold the Twitter icon and you’ll have the option to search, write a new tweet, or send a message.
However, Google Photos has one of the most useful shortcuts. Press and hold the photos icon and you will see a “free up space” shortcut. Tap this option and the app will find duplicate photos from your phone that are already saved in Google Photos. He will ask if you want to delete these photos as they have already been backed up.
You can obviously do this from within the app itself, but it’s a quick way to get there when you need extra storage on your phone.
Customize your daily briefing
My Day is one of the funniest and most useful features in Google Assistant. Launch the app with the voice command “Ok Google, tell me about my day” and you will receive a summary of the weather, traffic jams, news and more. Best of all, you can customize what information you want to include in your briefing.
In the Assistant, go to Settings> My Day, and you can choose the information you want: weather, travel time, appointments and reminders. You can also customize your news sources by clicking the settings icon in the News section.
Get new wallpapers every day
Pixel live wallpapers not only look beautiful, some of them serve practical purposes. For example, its horizon wallpaper shows the sunrise when your phone is charging. When the battery dims, the sun sets. You can also see the Earth with clouds in real time depending on your location. (If you don’t have a Pixel, Google has an app for them for other Android devices)
Google also includes a daily wallpaper feature that changes the wallpaper image every 24 hours. To access them, go to Settings> Display> Wallpaper. For example, if you select Cityscapes, you will see the option to turn on daily wallpapers. Tap a field to customize it.
Turn on the notification light
The Pixel notification light is off by default, so you might not even be aware of it. To turn it on, go to Settings> Notifications, then tap on the gear icon and turn on the “notification pulse”. Every time you receive a new notification, an indicator next to the speaker will now flash periodically.
However, the light is elusive and doesn’t blink often. You can turn it on as a light reminder that notifications are waiting for you, especially if your phone is set to silent or vibrate the rest of the time.
Play trivia with an assistant
Okay, this isn’t the most useful feature, but hey, it’s fun. If you ask Google Assistant to “play Lucky Trivia,” it launches a little game with five questions. You can play alone or with multiple participants. It asks a series of random questions like the one above and you answer with your voice. The questions are pretty simple, but if you have kids this can be a fun feature for them.
Accessing split screen mode
For apps that support it ( and even many that don’t ), you can also use split screen on your Pixel phone. To access split screen mode, open the apps you want to split. In one of the apps, press and hold the square menu button and your phone screen will split in half. From there, you can choose which second app you want on the bottom half of the screen.
When you are in split screen mode, the square button turns into two rectangular icons. To replace the bottom screen app, tap this split screen icon. To exit split screen mode, hold the icon.
Avoid and block spam calls
Whenever I get an unknown call, I immediately search for the number on Google to find out where it is from. It could be UPS calling me about a package, or it could be some spammer wasting my time. You are probably performing the same song and dance. Pixel makes it easy to track calls with Caller ID and Spam.
Please enable this feature in your dialer settings. This way, when you get a call, you get as much information about the caller as possible. You can also block these numbers in Google Dialer.
Automatically (and securely) connect to open Wi-Fi networks
The Google Wi-Fi Assistant comes in handy when you want to save on data costs. It automatically connects to open Wi-Fi networks when available. It only connects to high quality networks and protects your data over VPN . When you are connected, a key icon appears in the status bar.
This feature is disabled by default. To turn it on, go to Settings> Wi-Fi, then tap the gear icon and turn on Automatically use open Wi-Fi.
Turn on the night light
Less blue light before bed is good . Pixel Night Light changes the hue of your screen from blue to red at night, just like f.lux does , but without having to root your phone or use an app. In theory, the less blue light at night, the better you sleep .
Access Night Light by going to Settings> Display> Night Light. You can set it to turn off and on automatically from sunset to sunrise, or you can schedule it to run at specific times of the day.
Get information related to what is currently displayed on the screen
Google Assistant will tell you all the cool things it can do when you have an app open, much like Google Now On Tap has been used on older devices. However, you can also use it from other applications. The Assistant may offer additional information depending on what is on your screen. For example, if you’re reading an article, launch the Assistant by saying “Ok Google,” and you can swipe up on the Assistant to see suggestions for further reading or additional information on a specific topic.
The Pixel already comes with an abundance of practical tweaks, so some of the more obscure features it comes with are easy to hide. Best of all, some of these features are already available on the Nexus or will be available in Android 7.1.1.