Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority
Prices at fast food chains, restaurants, and even grocery stores have spiraled out of control over the past couple of years. Luckily, not all hope is lost — if you’re a savvy shopper, you might know that the best way to save real money is to check for loyalty program discounts and limited-time offers. The only problem? Most of these offers require you to download each company’s app and check into them from time to time.
If installing a dozen different apps sounds like a privacy nightmare, I wholeheartedly agree. But luckily, I’ve found a way to use these apps without the downsides — and it’s all thanks to a Pixel feature that has existed since last October.
The hidden cost of savings
Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority
Company-specific apps like Target, Walgreens, 7-Eleven, and Wendy’s tend to offer great deals, at least from time to time, but I’ve found living with these apps to be a headache. The first problem is storage and clutter on my phone. Even if I ignore the cost of storage, each icon takes up visual space in the app drawer and it’s annoying to scroll past dozens of mostly unused apps every single time.
While the offers are often great, most loyalty apps don't respect your time or privacy.
Then there’s the background activity. Most companies want you to install their app instead of a website so that they can sync data, sneak in notifications like reminders about new menu items, or passively track your location and browsing habits in the background. It’s not always that bad, of course, but multiplied across a handful of chains, it can all add up to a noticeable increase in battery drain and data usage. Privacy is the other big concern. I’ve turned off notifications and most permissions for these apps, but they can still potentially collect information like which Google accounts I have logged into my phone.
For a long time, I limited myself to keeping just one or two of these apps on my phone and convinced myself that the extra savings weren’t worth signing away my data to every single company out there. Of course, that’s not ideal — saving money matters more than ever in this era of ever-increasing inflation. So when I found out that the Pixel’s Private Space feature could give me the best of both worlds, savings and privacy, I jumped on it.
How the Pixel’s Private Space fixes the problem
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