Google Pixel phones have always been about incredible software rather than top-end hardware. Your Pixel might not be the most powerful phone ever, but it’s definitely one of the smartest. However, among all of Google’s software and AI wizardry, some of the Pixel’s best quality of life features don’t get talked about much.
After using Pixel phones for five years, I know they’re worth the money. And it’s not because of the excellent camera or the stock Android experience—it’s about the small quality of life features that make these phones better than most Android phones on the market.
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Quick Tap
Double-tap your way to shortcuts
All Pixels have a feature called Quick Tap which lets you double tap the back of your phone to trigger an action. The feature is derived from older Pixels which had the fingerprint sensor on the back. You could swipe on the sensor to trigger similar actions. These actions include:
- Taking screenshots
- Accessing your digital assistant
- Playing or pausing media
- Checking recent apps
- Checking notifications
- Toggling the flashlight
- Opening apps
You can find and set the action you like under the Gesture settings on your Pixel. You can also modify the tap strength it takes to trigger any selected action in case you have a case on the phone and need to tap it stronger for the input to register.
6
Screen Attention
The better screen timeout setting
Screen Attention is basically your Pixel watching to see if you’re still looking at your phone. The feature uses your front camera to detect when you’re looking at the screen and prevents it from timing out. It’s especially helpful if you read long articles or follow guides from your phone, considering the Pixel phones don’t get an unlimited screen timeout option.
The feature works best when your screen is well-lit, but it can be finicky based on your lighting conditions. For example, it’s not perfect under direct sunlight or if you’re in a dark room with your phone being the only light source. It’s placed in the Screen timeout section in the Display & touch settings of your Pixel.
5
Adaptive vibration
The perfect buzz, every time
If you frequently set your phone to vibrate instead of playing notification sounds, you must have come across situations where your phone rattles the whole table for a notification. It can be rather distracting and can even knock your phone down if it’s kept on a narrow surface.
Adaptive Vibration adjusts your phone’s vibration strength based on the surroundings. For example, if your phone detects that it’s in your pocket, it’ll vibrate harder to let you know you’ve got a notification. On the other hand, if it’s on a desk, the vibration intensity is turned down, so your entire desk doesn’t rattle every time you get a notification.
Your phone’s microphone and other sensors are used to determine sound levels and environment. Google claims that all data is processed locally and deleted shortly after. You’ll find the setting in the Vibration and haptics section of your Sound and vibration settings.
4
Time to take action
Notifications that wait for you
Time to take action is an accessibility setting that controls how long temporary messages that ask you to take action show up on the screen. You can choose between the default time to 10, 20, or 30 seconds and even one or two minutes if you need longer.
This setting affects temporary toggles like volume controls, quick settings, or notification popups. The default timing of these actions on the Pixel isn’t too slow, but if you find yourself missing OTP notifications or the volume slider too often, adjusting this setting will massively help out. You’ll find this in the Timing controls section of your phone’s Accessibility settings.
3
Call Screen
Let your Pixel deal with the spam
Call Screen is like having a personal assistant answer suspicious calls for you. When you get a call from an unknown number, Google Assistant will automatically pick the call to ask who’s calling and why. You’ll also see a real-time transcript on your screen, so you can decide whether to answer, hang up, or send the call to your voicemail without ever having to interact with the caller.
This is especially helpful if you get a lot of spam calls. The feature only works in a limited number of regions in the world though, but Google is constantly adding more countries to the list. All the voice-processing is done locally, although you can choose to send audio data to Google for feature improvements.
2
Clear Calling
AI noise canceling for real life
A lot of Android phones use AI and noise-cancellation tech to clear up your voice over phone calls. However, Pixel’s Clear Calling takes it a step further. This AI-powered feature reduces background noises like traffic, construction, and just about everything else during phone calls for both you and the person you’re calling.
It’s a simple toggle tucked away in your Sound and vibration settings. You literally just need to enable it once, and it’ll constantly work to improve call quality. Google claims all data is processed locally, and the feature works on both Wi-Fi and network calls, although 3G networks aren’t supported. Clear Calling is one of the most underrated features on Pixel phones that you won’t interact with much, but it makes a huge difference in your daily life.
1
Add Me
Finally, a selfie where everyone looks good
With Pixel cameras constantly providing one of the best camera experiences on Android and providing some of the best low-light smartphone photos, you’ll constantly be taking photos if you own one. However, the curse of being your group’s dedicated photographer is that you’re often the one missing from these photos. That’s not going to be a problem with Add Me.
The feature lets you take a group photo, then swap places with someone else and take another shot. Using AI and augmented reality, your phone will seamlessly merge both images so everyone—including you—appears in the final photo.
The feature works with groups of up to 20 people and even pets, so you’re covered for most situations. It also shows a helpful guide on the screen to help the second person taking the photo line up the shot accurately. It’s one of the more helpful Pixel camera features that Google has launched in recent times and often leaves iPhone users scratching their heads.
Little features that make a big difference
When you buy a Pixel, you get a litany of Pixel-exclusive features that integrate themselves into your life. Before you know it, you can’t go back to a non-Pixel Android device. It’s not a phone that dazzles everyone with its spec sheet, but the software features and wizardry Google puts into its phones can’t be ignored.
A lot of such features are sliders buried within your Pixel’s settings that you’ll enable once and never interact with again, but they solve real problems in clever ways that can improve your daily life and the phone’s overall user experience by miles. This is one of the major reasons why I always switch back to Pixel after every other phone I try.
