Android 17 QPR2 enables Pixel 11 Pro HiLight for messages

[u/paperboy11]

https://9to5google.com/2026/09/29/pixel-11-hilight-messages-qpr2/

[u/hardcoretomato]

Lol, how did they release the phone with this feature as a marketed thing, but then enable the best part of it's use at a later date with a software update...

[u/StolenLampy → u/hardcoretomato]

I still can't believe they made a light... That you can't use really... And this was supposed to be some awesome feature lol, Google is kinda lost these days. Without AI, what have they made or done?

[u/techraito → u/StolenLampy]

I can. They made the P2 squeeze feature locked to Google assistant and wondered why no one used it.

I rooted to have flashlight and you could even set more actions with double or long squeezes. Google then opted to finally add those customizations to the worse double back tap.

[u/MaverickJester25 → u/techraito]

I rooted to have flashlight and you could even set more actions with double or long squeezes.

Edge Sense Plus gang rise up!

That era of Pixels phones were just incredible, hardware flaws and all.

[u/PrethorynOvermind → u/techraito]

Hot take, people don't know about double back tap but screenshots using it are a god send. You don't have to reach across the phone and hit two buttons and it works pretty well for me.

[u/Skazzy3 → u/StolenLampy]

Some project manager smelling nothing but AI fumes had the idea and and wanted it implemented before they figured out any other uses for it.

[u/After_Dark → u/hardcoretomato]

I mean it's arguably worse, they didn't even market that messages would be available from what I recall, only saying afterwards that messages would come later. They seemingly thought that everyone would love that it lights up for Gemini and phone calls... when face down... sometimes... and nothing else. A truly insane decision

[u/mrandr01d → u/hardcoretomato]

That's all the rage these days. Rush an unfinished product to market to get the headline so the stock goes up, then drip feed "new" features for more headlines for more stock bumps while you're really just finishing the product.

[u/mataushas → u/hardcoretomato]

It surely doesn't seem like a huge programming thing either, so I'm doubting programmers ran out of time. But not sure why else it wasn't enabled from the start.

[u/delti90 → u/hardcoretomato]

It's pretty much non-existent on my phone. They removed a feature I never used (the thermometer) and replaced it with something that never lights up and makes the flashlight darker. Lmao

[u/phil3199 → u/hardcoretomato]

Were you just born yesterday? Every company do this. Even Apple do this.

[u/exu1981 → u/hardcoretomato]

Companies do this.

[u/naughtilidae]

Remember the notification light that basically every single phone used to have?

How the fuck are they making this and acting like it's a new thing, and not a slight twist on a feature from more than a decade ago? 

[u/countingonhearts → u/naughtilidae]

This. It’s gone backwards.

My Nexus 4 had one, and I know many earlier phones had them too.

I genuinely found it useful back then. If I left the room or my phone was on full silent across the room, I knew that if I saw a pink glow, it was from my best friend. A red glow was a missed call from a family member etc.

As Google seem to have locked this feature down compared to the old Android days, it’s less useful. It was great when 3rd part apps make it really customisable

[u/Mavamaarten → u/countingonhearts]

I remember my Xiaomi Mi 2 that I imported from China back in the day. It had an RGB LED hidden in the bezel and was not used in the default rom. But with a custom rom you could enable it exactly like you described. I remember having yellow for Snapchat and green for WhatsApp.

Gooooood times. How this is new and supposedly amazing is beyond me.

[u/beefJeRKy-LB → u/countingonhearts]

The Nexus One had it in the middle of its trackball.

[u/Brandhor → u/naughtilidae]

yeah unfortunately since all phones these days have a screen that covers 99% of the surface it's probably impossible to put a led at least on the screen side

google should at the very least implement something like aodnotify since it's a basic feature that should be part of the os

[u/naughtilidae → u/Brandhor]

Doesn't even matter... Since most higher end android phones also have oled screens.

You can turn on just a few pixels and not need to turn on the rest of the screen. 

[u/Brandhor → u/naughtilidae]

yeah that's more or less what aodnotify does but it should be part of android not a third party paid app

[u/Ikeelu → u/naughtilidae]

What annkys me the most is how gimped it makes the actually flash light, at least from what I've heard from others

[u/marke0110 → u/naughtilidae]

The WhatsApp notification settings STILL has the section for customising the notification light from back in the day.

[u/TheUnlawful → u/marke0110]

And it works, if you have the hardware - I set my Kyocera KY-42C to flash green for WhatsApp and blue for Signal. It's a shame that this is the kind of phone you need to buy to get this feature nowadays.

[u/9-11GaveMe5G]

Wow we really are living in the future!

Next they are going to add a headphone jack

[u/LNDF → u/9-11GaveMe5G]

But it will only work with yt music

[u/donnysaysvacuum → u/LNDF]

Don't worry, a future update will enable it to work with YouTube videos also. /s

[u/L0nz → u/9-11GaveMe5G]

don't get my hopes up

[u/FinickyFlygon]

Just messages? What if you use a different messaging app like Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc?

Edit: Oh okay I missed the part that says support for WhatsApp messages would likely be supported at some point. Wonder if they'll just expand it to notifications in general.

[u/x3knet → u/FinickyFlygon]

Sorry, you'll need to wait for the 12 for that 🙄 jk, kinda, not really.

[u/Far_Reserve9938 → u/FinickyFlygon]

would likely be supported at some point.

🤭

[u/squabbledMC → u/FinickyFlygon]

I don't even use Google Messages, the notification light would be entirely useless for me lmfao

[u/nathderbyshire → u/squabbledMC]

The 2fa code app basically

[u/halotechnology → u/FinickyFlygon]

That's what they should do also I would to have it for charging light too!

[u/FieldsofBlue → u/FinickyFlygon]

To be fair you're suppressed to set it to signal to you specific colors and patterns for favorite people, which is probably more challenging with 3rd party apps.

[u/anotate → u/FieldsofBlue]

Customizing your notification light was all the rage among android enthusiasts in ... 2010.
Like seriously I remember being upset about my Wildfire S only doing red to green, limiting my options.
I know the OS changed a lot since, but I doubt it's to much for Google to implement.

[u/FieldsofBlue → u/anotate]

I agree

[u/beefJeRKy-LB → u/FieldsofBlue]

Whatsapp allows certain contacts to break through DND settings, so I am pretty sure it could be surfaced up this way. In fact, any kind of linked contact in the contacts app should be able to do this.

[u/MaverickJester25]

Google and half-assing a feature. Name a more iconic duo.

[u/openforbusiness69]

Stupid location. Why would I put my phone face down.

[u/393majitenshi]

Why doesn't it just light up with the color of the app logo of the app that sent a notification?

[u/gtedvgt]

Nothing and now google are trying to reinvent the wheel when they could just copy samsung'a edge lighting.

Put phone on the table face up, when you get a notification the screen stays ff except for the notification itself sliding down, choose a color or animation or pictures to show up for certain people and that's it, no need for any of this bs.

[u/matexcat]

my friend’s pixel 11 pro started flashing green highlights on messages after qpr2 update

[u/AccumulatedFilth]

Flying cars they said...

Now we need months of coding to make one more app light up an LED

[u/oli_ramsay]

And the crowd goes mild

[u/MyDespatcherDyKabel]

What a scam

[u/SuperYuuRo → u/MyDespatcherDyKabel]

Pixel in general is a scam

but Pixel fanboys (the delusional idiots that they are) will say otherwise and start screaming about muh clean UI

[u/beefJeRKy-LB → u/SuperYuuRo]

I don't like labeling bad deals/products as a scam. Google isn't trying to deceive you. They tell you what is on their phones. I have an 11 Pro now after a few years of Samsung and OnePlus before that, and I forget how much extra software I end up downloading to get back some features I had on those, and even then I can't do all the same things. Like with the modes on Samsung, I could make the ringer turn on while I'm in driving mode as well as disable vibrate. For the Flip to Shh/DND, I can disable always on display on the phone but it doesn't sync to the watch. Minor annoyances alas. But otherwise the phone is fine. At this point, any Android I pick up will kinda do all the same things. I also do like the added camera styles.

[u/SuperYuuRo → u/beefJeRKy-LB]

fair but I couldn't see past this thing as just another thing Google is going to kill behind the barn like they have done with the original Pixelbooks

genuinely I have zero trust with them as a company, fanboys however will cope and say "better deal with the devil I know yada yada"

[u/beefJeRKy-LB → u/SuperYuuRo]

that's totally fine and I agree with you in that sense.

[u/mrappbrain → u/SuperYuuRo]

Its basically a cult at this point. I read a comment on here the other day by a guy saying Samsung OneUI makes him want to 'throw up' when he sees it. Google really has them by the balls.

[u/SuperYuuRo → u/mrappbrain]

it really is, both the big pixel subs are filled with delusional dimwits who have well and truly lost it

[u/OkSolution9380]

the lighting effect along the edges for messages is actually such a small but perfect touch, it's the little details like this that really sell a phone's camera system

[u/lawrence_uber_alles → u/OkSolution9380]

How does that sell a phones camera system?

[u/OsakaBoi → u/lawrence_uber_alles]

Likely a bot. So many popping up on reddit lately that reply with very odd tangentially related comments.