14 Things You Didn't Know Your Google Pixel Can Do

An argument can be made that the Google Pixel lineup has become one of the most coveted Android phones on the market, giving Samsung stiff competition courtesy of its focus on build quality and software-driven offerings that are ahead of the curve in more ways than one. In fact, the sheer number of QoL features on the Pixel is so massive that it's entirely possible most users have no idea what their phone is truly capable of. If you're a Pixel owner, do yourself a favor and open the My Pixel app to check out the suite of features that Google has added — and continues to add — to these flagship phones.

Once you do some research and figure out what your Pixel is capable of, you'll be genuinely surprised at the sheer number of things you've missed out on a phone that you've been using for quite some time. From nifty shortcuts that make navigating your Pixel easier than ever to camera features that will help unlock the photographer in you, here are some mind-blowing things your Pixel is capable of that you may have had no idea about.

Your Google phone's shortcuts aren't limited to just the power and volume buttons. In fact, your Pixel is hiding one of its most useful features in settings. You can enable a Quick Tap shortcut in settings that is triggered if you tap the back of your Pixel twice. This lets you take screenshots, bring up your digital assistant, use convenient media playback controls, open the app switcher, toggle the Pixel's flashlight, and open the app of your choice. It also lets you open your notifications, even if swiping up from the top of the screen is far more convenient.

The sensitivity of this feature is fine-tuned to the point where it registers even if you have suited up your Pixel with a protective cover. That being said, if Quick Tap is registering even when you're not using it, you can go to its settings and enable the "Require stronger taps" option under the "Quick Tap strength" section.

Pixel's suite of customization features makes it perfect for people who love to personalize their home screen and app layout. For starters, you can select the app grid layout of your choice in the "Wallpaper and style" section of your Pixel. These app icons will become smaller or larger based on the grid size you choose. Another way to adjust app icon size is by going to the "Display and touch" section in settings and tapping on "Display size and text." From here, adjust the slider to see a visual indication of how big or small your apps will be on your home screen once you're done.

This isn't the only way you can adjust these app icons. Going back to "Wallpaper and style," select the "Icons" tab for a wider suite of customization options. You can choose a default style that preserves the original look of your icons, or opt for a minimal style that uses your theme's color palette to give every app icon the same look. Aside from this, there's a "Create" option that uses AI to change the look of your icons based on one of five themes — Scribbles, Cookies, Easel, Treasure, and Stardust. On top of this, you can navigate to the "Shape" tab in "Icons" to choose from multiple shapes for your app icons. Aside from the classic circular look, you can choose between a more squarish design, a four-sided or seven-sided design, and a semi-circular look.

Depending on what navigation setting you've chosen, you can either use gestures or three buttons to use your Pixel. Either swiping up from the bottom of the screen or pressing the appropriate button opens the app switcher, whose functionality is pretty obvious. However, if you look at the bottom of the screen, you'll see two options. "Screenshot" is self-explanatory as it quickly takes a snap of the app screen. You may not be aware of this, but chances are you don't need to be, given that the combination of the power and volume down buttons is a far more accepted and convenient shortcut to accomplish the same.

The other option is far more useful and is criminally overlooked by most Pixel users. "Select" analyzes the app screen in question and converts it into selectable elements, letting you easily choose a body of text or an image. If you want to check the details of a particular picture or copy an Instagram caption and other similar elements, this button will be very helpful.

Aspiring photographers will be punching themselves for not knowing about this hidden Pixel camera setting that can make your photos and videos even better. Instead of just sticking to your phone's camera to click pictures, you can connect another Pixel as a remote camera and use your phone to control it, letting you take photos from multiple angles quickly. To use this feature, the first thing you have to do is go to "Connected preferences" from the "Connected devices" option in Settings. From here, tap on "Connected Cameras" and enable this option. Now, go to your Camera app, and you should see a small icon depicting a phone on the side of your screen. From here, choose the "Add Pixel" option, connect another device to your phone, and make the most of this remote camera feature.

The fun doesn't stop here. Do you have a GoPro or a camera with the USB Video Class (UVC) specification? You can connect the same to your phone beforehand in the "Connected Devices" section, and it will become usable via the "Connected Cameras" feature. Again, select the icon to add a Pixel, and you should see an option to choose your GoPro or any other USB camera. The best part is that this "Connected Cameras" feature supports Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, meaning that you can use your camera from these apps and select the device of your choice to click amazing pictures and post them online on the fly.

Ever wanted to take a detailed picture of the night sky with your phone, only to fail time and time again? Well, if you happen to own a Google phone, then chances are that you're sitting on a hidden Pixel feature that can make these photos look better than ever. To access this feature, go to Night Sight in your camera. Tap the icon on the bottom right of the screen, and you'll also see a slider right above the shutter button. This can be moved all the way to the right to enable Astro mode.

After this, press the shutter button, and you'll get 5 seconds to place your phone down, facing the night sky. It takes around 4 minutes to generate this photo, using multiple long-exposure shots and merging them to create a beautiful picture of the night sky. If you don't want to keep your phone face down on the ground, then use a tripod instead.

The wealth of software solutions in your Pixel is truly mind-boggling, and Clear Calling is one such feature that deserves a ton of love. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you're taking a call with a ton of background noise, then it's in your best interests to enable Clear Calling.

Simply go to the "Sound and vibration" tab in Settings, then tap "Clear Calling." From here, enable this option, and your voice should be clearer than before as long as the decibel value of the background noise around you doesn't reach stupidly high levels. It does this by filtering out background noise and boosting voices, making your call cleaner and more audible. One thing to keep in mind here is that Clear Calling doesn't work on 3G networks. Given how 4G and 5G networks have become the norm on most phones, this shouldn't be a major issue for you.

While many laptops come with pre-installed webcams, an issue can pop up out of nowhere that renders them unusable. The camera quality might be absolutely horrendous, driver issues can prevent your webcam from even being registered by your computer, or hardware damage may make your webcam nothing more than a piece of junk. Instead of shelling out money for an external webcam, you can use your Google Pixel's USB-C port to do something else aside from charging.

All you need to do is connect your Pixel to your computer with a USB cable. The phone usually defaults to a simple charging function with this connection, as seen in your notifications. Tap on this "Charging this device through USB" notification and select "Webcam" from the "Use USB for" menu. That's all it takes to turn your Pixel into a convenient external webcam.

People love to unlock immersive audio experiences, even if they've connected their headset to a phone. Google understands the need for the same, letting you enjoy a Spatial Audio effect with your wired headphones or any compatible wireless audio devices. Go to the "Sound and vibration" section in Settings and scroll down until you see the "Spatial Audio" setting. Turn this on, and you'll enjoy a surround sound-esque effect for your favorite movies and music.

Pixel power users who own the Pixel Buds Pro can take things a step further with Head Tracking. Once you've connected these wireless earbuds to your phone, go to your "Connected Devices" and select "Pixel Buds Pro". Scroll down, and you'll see the aforementioned "Spatial Audio" toggle conveniently placed here along with another toggle for "Head Tracking." Depending on your head movement and position, the audio emanating from your Pixel Buds Pro will also adjust accordingly. While this may seem like a gimmick to some, there's no reason why you shouldn't toggle this function and give it a whirl at the very least.

Teenage Engineering has made a name for itself by designing some of the quirkiest products on the market, including the rabbit r1, the Playdate, a ridiculously cool PC case, and a bunch of funky audio products. It's also responsible for the incredible design of the Nothing phone, which has become one of the company's biggest selling points. As impressive as its track record already is, it has also bolstered it via a unique and somewhat muted collaboration with Google to craft an exclusive app for the Pixel.

Pocket Operator is a fun app that you can play around with, uploading your videos and turning them into an interactive music medium where you can tap multiple icons to transform your video's motions into unique musical performances. You can add visual effects to the videos you shoot and layer audio effects with the app's virtual synthesizer to make some groovy tracks.

Your Pixel comes with a bunch of modes for specific situations. Do Not Disturb prevents your phone from being an active distraction and only lets the apps, people, and other interruptions of your choice disturb you when this mode is active. Driving Mode does the same and will help minimize the chances of distraction because your Pixel starts ringing out of nowhere. Game Dashboard and Transit modes work similarly to prevent notifications from disturbing you when you're gaming on your phone or traveling.

Finally, there's Bedtime Mode, which automatically dims the phone and mutes any calls or notifications when you've hit the hay. You can also configure this mode to turn on Greyscale or enable a Dark theme, if it isn't already, to prevent your phone from straining your eyes right before you sleep. However, one lesser-known feature of Bedtime Mode is that it monitors your sleep activity and lets you see how much time you spend on your phone before you doze off. It also monitors cough and snore activity, letting you assess your overall sleep quality and whether anything needs to be changed to make your nights more restful.

Interacting with customer support can be a cumbersome affair, with automated voices and lengthy waiting times making it an enormous waste of time. Google has identified this pain point and will let you access two useful features via Call Assist to make things easier for you.

If customer support puts you on hold, enable the Hold for Me option so you don't have to listen to the hold tune in the hope that the conversation will resume at some point. Instead, your phone will notify you that the music has stopped and there's someone speaking on the other line, letting you do something else in the meantime until it's time to resume the conversation.

Meanwhile, enabling Direct My Call lets your Pixel listen to what an automated voice is saying and gives you tappable buttons to select one of the many options it offers. With this, you can say goodbye to the irritating act of having to memorize what number corresponds to which option.

Sometimes, people want to download apps that they don't want anyone else to see, which is a risk if their friends or family members use their phone. Instead of being in a constant state of paranoia, you're better off using an elegant solution called Private Space, present in your Pixel itself. To use this feature, navigate to the "Security and privacy" tab in Settings and select "Private Space" under the "Privacy" section. After a quick authentication process, you can set up this Private Space to install any sensitive apps, which can be accessed by scrolling all the way down in your app drawer.

You can connect any apps in your Private Space to a separate Google Account for even greater privacy. In a way, this creates a separate profile on your device, almost as if you're using two phones in one! The way Google has integrated Privacy Space into the Pixel is genuinely brilliant — screenshots from apps in your Private Space are automatically stored in the Locked Folder of your Google Photos, and any downloads from these apps are saved in a separate locked section of Google Files. It's also possible to set up a separate lock to safeguard this Private Space from anyone who may know your device password or unlock pattern.

The current iteration of Recorder on your Google Pixel is ridiculously advanced. For starters, it doubles as a transcribing app that provides a written transcript of any recorded audio. Not only can you use text search to jump to any point in the recording where these words are uttered, but you can also delete any part of the transcript in a similar manner to a text editor ... and your audio will also be edited accordingly to reflect this change!

On top of this, Recorder can also translate languages, add audio tags to provide a brief description of what is happening in different areas of the recording, use smart scrolling to let you jump to any relevant keyword that has the information you need, and let you share snippets of your recording with a visual indicator on social media.

The latest feature added to Recorder with the launch of the Pixel 10 is powered by AI and lets you generate music to place over your recording. Select the audio of your choice and choose "Create music" from the Recorder menu. From here, choose a preset vibe or create one of your own by selecting a relevant genre and feeling, and let Recorder generate music that fits the audio.

Most people use screenshots to capture valuable data, although trying to fish out an old screenshot to get the information you need can be a pain. Thankfully, the Pixel Screenshots app has made these worries a thing of the past. It uses AI-powered solutions to make your screenshots more convenient to access than ever before.

Pixel Screenshots creates AI summaries of your screenshots to make them easier to search for. It also categorizes them automatically with Smart Filters for better organization. If you're taking a screenshot you know you will want to access later, you can set a reminder on Pixel Screenshots so that you get an alert at the appropriate time.

If this doesn't make Pixel Screenshots impressive enough on its own, this program integrates seamlessly with other apps to make it even more intuitive to use. In the app's settings, turn on "show suggestions from your screenshots in other apps" to get smart pop-ups that come up whenever you use any other app where the information from this screenshot can come in handy. If you use Circle to Search, a prompt comes up that lets you save the image in question to Pixel Screenshots. Finally, any screenshots of your credit cards, passports, or other sensitive data can easily be added to your Google Wallet for greater ease of use.