Google Pixel

Physical changes are also welcome, so things like skins, cases, screen protections etc... are fine to discuss.

For me, in this order:

• Wi-Fi calling: it was very surprising that this was not on by default, and enabling it helped a bit with the battery life on my Pixel 7a;
• Try custom launchers: I was happy with the phone but the very first annoying thing is the damn Google search bar and how there was no way to just hide it like any other widget. So I ended up installing KISS Launcher (it's FOSS and still maintained);
• Bite the bullet and install GrapheneOS: you get more security, sandboxed Play Services, a more fine-grained permissions system and you can still install the default Pixel apps from the Play Store while cutting off their internet access, and most importantly you get rid of the Google bar (also enabled Wi-Fi calling as previously done).

The Pixel phone cameras and their AI photo enhancements using Google's Tensor chip are among the things where Pixel phones shine and which make their owners fall in love with them. In case you didn't see it already, please take a look at all of the beautiful shots by the members in our Pixel photography megathread and feel free to contribute your own! 😁

Whether you're a photography geek or just starting out, this thread aims to be a place to share tips and tricks to make the most out of your Pixel phone's camera and its AI magic to capture stunning shots.

Please feel free to share your favorite tricks regarding but not limited to:

• Accessories: what are your must-have accessories that level up your photography experience?

• Composition techniques: rule of thirds, golden ratio... do you use any of these techniques?

• Digital zoom: do you ever use it?

• Google Camera settings: what are your go-to settings in the Google Camera app for different scenarios? Or do you prefer using another app?

• Gripping: how do you like to hold your device when shooting photos and videos?

• Lenses: which lenses do you use the most? Do you find yourself using macro and wide angle more, or telephoto (maybe even for close ups)?

• Lighting: how do you deal with different lighting conditions to get the perfect shot?

• Portrait shots: how do you get that perfect bokeh effect in your portrait shots?

• Post-processing: which Google Camera filters do you use the most? Do you use any other Android apps for additional post-processing or do you post-process on PC?

Model-specific tips are of course also welcome. Don't forget to state what phone model you have when posting!

Can't wait to see what photography hacks you've got up your sleeves! 📸✨

-- with love by AlmightySnoo & hackitfast

(photo featuring the Google Camera app by Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian)

We'll keep it in a single sticky thread for now and see how it goes. Please don't forget to indicate which model you used to take the photo! 😁

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EDIT: Won't be pushing Pixelfed anymore. As someone in the comments already said, it reduces the quality of your photos. And Lemmy.world isn't a small instance anymore and should handle the photos so we'll ignore the recommendation below, unless of course you don't mind the lossy compression that's being applied :-)

If you want a tiny bit of lossless compression before posting your photos, if you're on Linux you could feed them to jpegoptim.

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The following is of course not necessary, but if it's not too complicated for you it might be preferable to host your photos on a Pixelfed instance if they are too large to help lessen the burden on the lemmy.world instance!

Basically, once you upload your image on a Pixelfed instance, you can embed your image here by right-clicking (or long tap if on your phone) on the Pixelfed pic, choosing "copy image link" (or opening it in a new tab and copying the URL if your mobile browser doesn't show this), and then you paste the URL here inside an image tag like this:

![](PASTE_URL_HERE)

Discussions and suggestions about how the community is run, the moderation, the rules etc... go here!

Nova launcher is getting more and more incompatible with my Google Pixel 8 and my Google Pixel 6. The Google search bar on the home screen was the reason I started using a third party launcher. have they fixed that yet?

I've got burn in from Spotify being left up 10-30 min twice a day during most week days... I've read the pixel phone help doc with no solution available... I was wondering if I could do something to fix it myself or do I need to contact Google?

Edit: Solved! I forgot I had accidentally opened a VPN app that was not yet configured and it had "always-on" enabled by default. Turned it off and everything worked fine again.

Hello friends! I dropped my Pixel 8 today and everything appeared to be fine until I realized nothing on discord would load and spotify said I was not connected to the internet. It showed that I was on 5G and should have had great connection, but nothing. I tried connecting to my work wifi, which connected, but again there's no internet when I try to use any apps.

Basically my phone is connected to wifi/5G but the internet just doesn't work after the drop.

If y'all could help me figure out what's going on, if it's fixable, etc, that would be lovely. I'd be happy to provide any additional information that could be useful. Also if it matters, I'm using grapheneOS.

I have no interest in playing or emulating on the Pixel 6 Pro, but I am interested in knowing how it performs under emulation (especially under the most recent emulators, like Yuzu), any experience?

It's alive!

Received this today. I thought it was some emergency security fix given the odd update time.

And there's no way to fix it short of flashing a new rom,as I understand. Just have to deal with the extra step now.

I was not impressed with this phone and they just keep making it less-user friendly.

I mean how the fuck are they justifying not letting you see which devices are connected to your hotspot?

Ri-diks.

Just curious if anyone else has had this problem or knows a fix for it. On my pixel 8 using the hotspot I'm only able to get about 500 Kbps on whichever device I connect to. I've tested it on multiple devices and they are all getting the same speed. The phone itself is getting 150-300 mbps download over 5g cell on tmobile and even higher on wifi. I've tried multiple fixes that I've found online including turning off Bluetooth, updating the phone, turning off wifi calling and adaptive network and even setting up a custom APN but nothing has worked so far.

Just wondering if this is a known issue as I haven't found anything from Google about it.

Was very excited about this but turns out I can only use DuckDuckGo app, not DuckDuckGo in Firefox. I'm afraid this feature won't really be usable for me since I rely on FF add-ons and synchronization.

Some of the leaked marketing shots:

!

>The ad shows Google’s new mid-range device in blue and off-white color variants, and it’s abundantly clear that it is the Pixel 8a. For one, the device in question has two cameras and a blue color, something the standard Pixel 8 wouldn’t fit. It’s also lacking a microphone near the cameras.

The ad in question:

!

In case some of you want to take pictures tomorrow 😁

On my pixel 6, I don't know what update changed this, but you have to tap the music symbol on the lock screen to get it to ID a song. I want it to listen all the time like it used to so I can no-hassle scrobble vinyl to last.fm. Any ideas?

Hi all,

I have backups turned off everywhere I can find the ability to do so on my pixel 8 pro, but am regularly (multiple times per week) getting notifications that my Google storage is almost full. Lo and behold, every time I check drive, I suddenly have a backup that I have to delete, again and again. Does anyone have any tips? It's really making me regret getting a Google phone, since I don't need my phone connected to my email.

Thanks in advance! :)

Most, if not all of the new image and video stuff is done in the cloud, so why is it that only the Pixel 8 and up are getting them? It's hard to recommend a Pixel, or buy another one when they seem to only be focused on selling the newest phone.

That sounds normal, but really it's not. Samsungs and iPhones have features only on the newest devices, yes. But if the hardware of the previous gens allow, the older phones get as many new features as possible.

The Pixel 4a got Magic Eraser (a feature introduced on Pixel 6). To have a Pixel 7, and get almost none of the new software-based features leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

A phone bought less than a year ago shouldn't feel so abandoned! Even the $300 Xiaomi I had was better supported.

It's about time to move on from my 2xl, I'm shooting for a used/referb for under $250.

When I got my Pixel 8 Pro, which I generally love, and Lock Screen Shortcuts were a new thing, I configured on for flashlight and one for DND. At first, I felt like the buttons weren't sensitive enough and they were difficult to activate unless I got my finger JUST right, didn't move, and held it the perfect amount of time.

Then, the last update, I am constantly seeing my flashlight turn on or my phone is randomly in DND. I think now the buttons are too sensitive. I guess someone noticed the issue I had above and way overcompensated.

Anyone else?

Before this latest update (android 14 March update; pixel 7a), I used to get alarms both on my Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids, and the phone speakers. That's also true for the timer function.

But now it seems they're going only to the hearing aids, not the phone, which is problematic because at night the hearing aids sit in a charger, not my ears, but are (quite annoyingly) still connected to the phone. Which means the last few days I missed my morning alarm.

The other morning, while trying to figure out what was going on, I selected the alarm tone, and it only kind of played on the phone (my hearing aids were still in the charging case). It played for less than a second then off. A little later, it played and then off.

When I first upgraded to the march update, I noticed Bluetooth cycling on and off a few times (but I don't recall seeing it afterwards).

Anyone have similar experiences? Known bug? Some settings I'm not aware of that I should try?

From the release notes, it provides the following fixes:

> - Fixed an issue that sometimes caused a device to crash or restart unexpectedly. > - Fixed an issue that sometimes caused a device to crash or restart unexpectedly while updating apps after the device was flashed. > - Fixed issues that caused a device to display a blank, black screen after booting from flash. > - Fixed an issue that caused a device to crash and display a blank, black screen after switching to a secondary user. > - Fixed issues when always-on display mode was enabled that interfered with the "Double tap to wake" gesture and prevented the device from unlocking if the user tried to use their fingerprint to unlock the device. > - Fixed an issue that sometimes caused battery information to not display correctly in the system settings, status bar, and on the lock screen. > - Fixed issues that prevented device-to-device transfers and backup and restore from working. > - Fixed various issues that were impacting system stability, performance, and camera.

The new beta targets the following devices:

• Pixel 5a;
• Pixel 6 and 6 Pro;
• Pixel 6a;
• Pixel 7 and 7 Pro;
• Pixel 7a;
• Pixel Fold;
• Pixel Tablet;
• Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.

Hot damn that's a large update! Anyone know what's in it?

E: It's QPR2.

I simply didn't like the device. At first I loved it, but after the honeymoon period I found myself slowly regretting my purchase.

The phone is simply too heavy. The thing weighs an absolute ton. I'd have to rest it on a pillow when browsing because using the phone for more than a couple minutes would start to hurt my wrists.

The inner screen felt largely useless. Apps were rarely formatted for the aspect ratio of the interior screen, and even some apps that had foldable support on Samsung's offering were bizarrely absent on the Fold namely Facebook.

Apps aside even consuming media using the tablet display felt bad, again, because of the square aspect ratio severely limiting the viewable space. Movies and shows had black bars that made the viewing area only marginally larger, if at all, than a slab device.

The Tensor 2 just isn't a great chip. It makes no sense that Google launched a 2023 flagship device that's twice the cost of a Pixel 8 Pro only months before said Pixel Pro with LAST YEAR'S processor. What the hell? We didn't even get the extended phone updates that the Pixel 8 Pro received guaranteeing 7 years of support vs 3. $1800 for a phone with half the support and an outdated processor missing all the AI capabilities Google is currently leaning into heavily going forward.

Not even the camera was as good as the Pixel 7 Pro's. $1800 for a phone that's technically worse than last year's $800 model with the same chipset all for the folding gimmick that hardly adds anything to the experience but weight.

I had never been happier to get rid of a phone and go back to a slab with the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Honestly I don't think I could be convinced to go back to a foldable as for my use case I couldn't find a purpose for a "kind of" tablet.

How is everyone enjoying their Pixel 8 experience?

Around the black Friday sales time, I tentatively switched from a Pixel 6 pro to an 8 pro. I was pretty nervous about the switch as my experience with the 6 pro was good but not great (specifically the battery life) and I didn't want the same to happen with the 8 pro. However, a few months on and I can say that my experience has been outstanding.

I never have to worry about battery life; the screen is bright and amazing; the face unlock is reliable and fast; and, it just feels like a more premium build compared to my 6 pro.

If you made the switch, what's your experience been like?

(Edit: P.S. I know I asked this question at launch in this sub but I love hearing long-term reviews 😅)

Results look disappointing for the Pixel 8 Pro in this test as it lands last for battery life and does a bit better than the iPhone 15 Pro Max in terms of charging speed.

About how they perform their battery life test:

>This is done by using a light meter to calibrate their displays to 150 nits, then running a script that simulates web surfing over 5G cellular connectivity. This is done until their batteries are depleted.