GoKawiilTL;DR Google has officially named the Pixel 11 Pro’s rumored Pixel Glow feature “HiLight.”
It’s an array of ambient LED lights built around the camera’s flash.
HiLight can use custom colors to alert you when a favorite contact calls, including calls made through Phone by Google and WhatsApp.
The LEDs also react to Gemini and could eventually handle more alerts, with Google already planning to add message notifications from Favorite Contacts.
After months of leaks that left little to the imagination, Google has finally unveiled its Pixel 11 flagship lineup, along with the official name of one of its most-rumored new features. For months, we knew it as Pixel Glow, a name I personally preferred, but with the launch of the Pixel 11 series, we now know Google is calling it HiLight.
Exclusive to the Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, HiLight is essentially a small array of ambient LEDs around the camera flash. It is designed to give you information without requiring you to turn over or unlock your phone.
HiLight turns the back of your Pixel into a notification light
Joe Maring / Android Authority
The idea behind HiLight is pretty simple. Google says there is a tension between wanting to stay connected and wanting to avoid constant distractions from notifications. HiLight is meant to be a middle ground by giving you glanceable information from the back of the phone.
If that sounds familiar, it should. Nothing has made this kind of LED-based notification system something of a signature in recent years, particularly with its customizable Glyph interface. Google is now taking a similar idea and giving it its own Pixel spin.
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