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Rumors of the upcoming Pixel 11 and its mysterious new “Pixel Glow” feature are slowly spreading. My colleagues at Android Authority have already spotted a new settings screen in Android 17 beta 4 that lets you control visual feedback alerts on the back of the phone, as well as hints of this new feature in the Pixel Diagnostics and Google app.
This is all very exciting. A new light-based hardware addition would be an awesome differentiator for Pixel phones. However, some of our findings leave me scratching my head a little bit. Gemini? AI? Why?
What would you prefer Google uses Pixel Glow light notifications for? 32 votes Specific contact calls. 16 % Unread messages from specific contacts. 6 % Gemini Live. 3 % Battery charging. 3 % Timers and alarms. 0 % All of the above. 50 % Open the API and let it be used by any app dev. 22 % Something else (let us know in the comments) 0 %
A notification light could be a very cool Pixel feature
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Pixels aren’t strangers to unique and quirky hardware features that no other phone has. The Pixel 2 series introduced Active Edge for squeezing your phone to trigger Google Assistant. The Pixel 4 series brought the Soli radar chip to let you control your phone by gesturing in front of it. And more recently, the Pixel 8 Pro had a built-in thermometer that works just as well for checking your baby formula’s bottle as it does for verifying your house’s insulation.
A glowing notification light, even something that promises to breathe out or animate elegantly (because of the “aurora” codename), wouldn’t be a Pixel-first feature or unique to the series, but it would bring something very interesting to Google’s phones. Sure, Nothing has been there already, and even before, plenty of phones had a simple notification LED going back to something like the HTC One, but while Nothing is slowly walking back its commitments to Glyph lights, Google could carry over and implement something more universal on the Pixel 11.
The strings we’ve uncovered point to calls from favorite contacts lighting up Pixel Glow, as well as Gemini Live. There are hints at notifications, but nothing specific about that yet. Obviously, the Pixel 11 is still months away from launch, so Google is likely still working on adding and testing more features, and we could see more down the line.
Ultimately, I’d love it if Pixel Glow integrated with Pixel VIPs to let me specify different colors for the most important contacts in my life, whether they’re calling or messaging (including through third-party apps like WhatsApp). But I’d also love it if it could indicate charging level, ongoing timers, maybe even nearby ride shares or food deliveries. For that, it would need to be integrated with Android 16’s new Live Notifications, which is the perfect starting ground to build contextual notifications with lights.
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