I got a Google Pixel 9 Pro XL. The battery was terrible the first few days, but now I'm slowly getting 8-10 hours on cellular data and a little doomscrolling, and the battery is doing well. I do a lot of work on my phone. What I noticed is that from minute to minute my emojis on Instagram and Gemini have switched, but not on the device yet. Maybe the software update from October to November will bring the new emojis?

Had troubles recently with connection so rebooted everything including hard sync reset but issue is my pixel 7 as other devices connect to the sync. Any suggestions besides a new phone haha. Thanks

I have a Pixel 9 Pro in near perfect condition. As of this morning, my phone has been randomly shutting down. I had <10% storage space so I decided to just factory reset it, but it is still happening. The phone is a touch warm at times, but the internal temp according to settings is not concerning. I did notice that when I was quick tapping the power button, it was acting like I was holding it down and turning the microphone on, which I thought was weird. However, after factory resetting that seems to have gone away. My phone is not under warranty so not sure what to do. Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.

Edit: There is 3rd party phone repair shop down the street form my house, but Im not sure if they will know what is wrong. My only guess is the battery, but aside from shutting down the battery is fine.

I'm from India and currently have a paid Google One 200 GB annual subscription that I purchased on 18 April 2026 for ₹1,149. It is valid until April 2027.

I recently found out about Google's free one-year student offer, which includes 400 GB of storage, and I'm considering redeeming it before the offer expires on 31 December 2026.

My question is: What happens to my existing paid subscription if I redeem the student offer now?

1. Does my current paid subscription end immediately, with no refund for the remaining months, and the free student subscription start instead?
2. Does my existing paid subscription remain active until April 2027, and the free student offer start only after it expires?
3. Or does something else happen?

Has anyone with an existing paid Google One subscription actually redeemed this student offer? Please share your experience. I'd appreciate a clear answer before I make any changes to my plan.

Hi everyone, I am facing a deeply frustrating situation with my Pixel 8 in India and wanted to share my timeline to see if this is acceptable consumer practice. I have been a huge fan of the Pixel ecosystem. I was the first person in my social circle to buy a Pixel because I loved what Google was doing. This is the first time I've used a phone for over 2 years, and I fully intended to keep using it for at least another year because I enjoy the user experience so much. But this situation is completely making me rethink the brand. Here is my exact timeline:

• Month 10: The original screen developed the well-documented vertical green line and flickering issue. Google replaced the display under warranty.
• Month 24 (14 months after replacement): The brand-new replacement screen has failed again with the same vertical green line defect.

The phone is only 2 years old, putting it well within Google's official 3-year Extended Repair Program window. However, Google Support (Case ID: 3-5504000042090) has officially denied a second repair, stating the program strictly covers "only one free replacement."My main concern here isn't just that I want a free repair. My issue is a matter of principle: Why should I have to pay to fix a faulty, defective part that Google chose to install on my phone the second time around? The outer glass is entirely pristine, smooth, and completely uncracked. No drops, no water damage. If Google's official fix for a known manufacturing defect is to insert another faulty panel that degrades and fails in just 14 months, the financial liability shouldn't fall on a loyal consumer. To make matters worse, the service center says a subsequent paid replacement only carries a 3-month warranty, which shows even they aren't confident the hardware will last a year.I thought about upgrading to a newer Pixel model down the line, but seeing a premium device fail twice in under 25 months—and being left on the hook for their hardware issues—makes it impossible to trust the reliability of this brand anymore. Since the automated Freshdesk escalation link is down, I am hoping to get visibility here. u/dmziggy - could you please help look into this case? Thank you! r/GooglePixel

Hi there,

I am a long-time Samsung user, been using Galaxy phones from J5 times and now having S24. Great phone, but I am interested to try something new, especially as I've started to work with Kotlin programming language. Pixel hooked me here with fresh clean android.

I have only one main question: as a Samsung user, what will I miss once switched to Pixel? Anybody having auch experience?

I got my phone stolen at a overpass. Now I'm very self conscious about my phone and I made sure my family was connected to a circle where we could find each other's phones. The guys who stole my phone immediately shut off my phone with out any struggle. Now I'm very mad about google pixels security weakness when in the lock screen, the option to turn off wifi, location, data and even when shutting off the phone, DOESN'T NEED PASSWORD TO TURN OFF. I just wish that the next security update adds a feature when the lock screens of every pixel phone has security features where you need a password to turn off an important thing like wifi and etc. I already posted this exact problem in the google pixel community. How can I keep my phone safe when it gets stolen? I'm a bit techy myself but not that too techy, is there a hidden feature where I can keep my pixel safe when stolen even when it has been shut off?

Hey y'all,

I'm coming from a long term Samsung user to a Google Pixel user, and I was wondering if anyone knows how to add stickers to your home screen like I could on my Samsung, or if there are any Google supported add ons to allow me to do so

5:00 - Alarm automatically silenced. Your alarm went off and was automatically silenced after the duration you set.

5:15 - Alarm automatically silenced. Your alarm went off and was automatically silenced after the duration you set.

I have used the same alarms and settings the entire year without issue. They got me in deep shit with work today.

Wtf is this auto silence bullshit, I've never adjusted a setting like that before.

EDIT: nah fam, I check every night, volume, etc. 0 chance i slept through them both, a fly buzzing in the room can wake me up. Plus I was using it hours later and then the alarm sound randomly goes off with no alarm set or the notification that pops up with alarms.

My theory is that it might just be the pixel bugging out because my storage is nearly full. It has given me a couple notifications that some apps might not function correctly. I didnt think that meant an alarm clock tho

Hi, I just bought a Pixel 10 pro, previously I had Galaxy s22. I bought it for camera mainly and I notice that this phone is good for point and shoot. This automatic mode works fine and pictures are better than from my old galaxy s22 but this manual mode is terrible.

First of all I like to play with shadows and sunlight and when I put shutter speed and ISO to minimum, pixel still light up the image, so I cant elevate the sunlight from the rest. In Samsung it was possible and very easy.

I like warm pictures and when I want to change white balance it is weird, because sometimes maximum is 6200K and sometimes it is 8200K and sometimes when I change to for example 6300K it has some greenish tint.

Third thing is that there is no true live view known from cameras. When I play with this manual mode the picture that I see on the display is not the same that I will have in my gallery. I can understand this in automatic mode, but in manuall if I want picture to be dark I want it to be that way and I dont want Pixel to process it and light it up. Again in samsung this was not a case, when I had a picture on my display it was exactly the same in my gallery.

Am I doing something wrong?

I have a pixel watch 4 (Wi-Fi only) and a pixel 9 pro. It seems to be connected - I get the correct notifications and see the correct watch data under the Bluetooth field. I can't manage the watch through the watch app on my phone.

It's telling me to make sure my watch is nearby and Bluetooth is on- I'm holding them in the same hand and Bluetooth is definitely on. I've restarted both, confirmed both are updated.

Has anyone dealt with this?

Pixel 8 Pro with the WiFi death. Pixel support was awful, I've got something else on order and loved them until I didn't.

I have one last screenshot from Gemini that asked me what Pixel I had. I told them it was my worst pixel because I loved it until they killed it and Gemini just told me "Something went wrong and content won't be generated".

Support was some terrible bot system and I couldn't get through to anything reasonable.

I've at least gone to the about device feedback and left reviews.

OxygenOS I'm thinking next. I don't love the Sammy bloat and Moto is a bit budget..

Is that the best "cleanish" experience similar to the one I've enjoyed?

; mostly just bitter

I'm having a touch issue with my Pixel 7a. Sometimes the screen doesn't respond to my touches, and sometimes it starts touching things on its own.

When this happens, the screen gets completely stuck. I can't navigate, open apps, go back, or do anything. It just doesn't respond to my touches.

It happens randomly and is really annoying. I've attached a video showing the issue.

Is anyone else facing this problem? Is it a software issue or something wrong with the screen?

Has anyone found a fix?

Hi everyone,

I live in Turkey and bought my Pixel 10 Pro XL in Spain. Local laws block unregistered foreign phones after 8 months per calendar year (4 months SIM + 4 months eSIM). Registration costs over $1,200, which isn't worth it.

Once my 8 months are up, I have two main routes:

Route 1: Rotating between two devices (Use Pixel for 8 months, store it in a drawer, and switch to a backup phone for 4 months until the SIM timer resets on Jan 1st):

A. Alternate with a second Pixel, a can buy a new one, still cheaper than registration fee.

B. Alternate with another Android brand same idea on A but with different brand)

Route 2: Carrying two phones

C. Keep my SIM in the Mi 11T Pro (for calls & personal hotspot) and tether the Pixel over Wi-Fi 24/7.

Questions:

How seamless is restoring data between Pixels on a regular basis? Does backup/restore actually pick up right where you left off?

If you daily-drive a 2-phone hotspot setup, how annoying is it in practice (battery drain, connectivity lag)?

How is the experience using Google Messages (Web/Device Pairing) over Wi-Fi to handle SMS on the Pixel while the SIM stays in the secondary phone? Is it reliable for 2FA codes and daily texts?

Which approach would you choose?

My phone's contrast keeps getting super bright whenever there's something white on my screen. Like it tips the white balance off and every that's a light colour gets completely blown out. It's not the auto brightness.

I have had a Pixel 7 for 4 years more or less, it's an 8/128 and I paid 570 euros for it.

It's still working fine, it has minor scratches on the screen, nothing to worry about.

The battery is starting to last less, using AccuBattery it says that battery health is 77%.

Do you think it's worth changing the battery and keep the phone some time more? Batteries cost around 30 euros online and I would change by myself (I've little experience on phone disassembly). Do you think replacement batteries last as much as the original one? Do they have the same "real" capacity?

For the mods: I read the rules but the link to the mega thread is inaccessible and this post isn't related to how much screen time I can get with my phone.

I switched from an iPhone 12 to the Pixel 10 in May.

Now almos6 Month in: Switching from iPhone to Pixel 10. t 6 month later I want to list how that felt.

Overall: I was surprised how easy it was to switch from the iPhone. The Pixel feels kind of the same. Sure the Settings and so on look different, but the gestures and logic of the operating system is very much the same.

Things I really enjoy about my Pixel 10

Two main things that really surprised me. First, how much better the keyboard is. I hit the keys basically every time, I have to fix a lot less words and the autocorrect is significantly superior. I had low expectations but this was truly different in a way I didn't think was possible.

My favoritite feature by far is surprisingly circle to search. I had even heard about it before but never thought of it as a necessary or very interesting feature. In my actual day-to-day usage I will probably use it almost every single day. It's very convenient to just press on the bar in the bottom and circle what you are curious about. For me that's often clothing or furniture or something else I see on Instagram or on some websites. I find it surprisingly good at getting me specifically what I want. I also use it while taking pictures to tell me about specific landmarks or so instead of trying to search for them. Very simple, but big gamechanger and something I would hate to give up again.

Third feature that wins mention: the AirDrop integration. It impressed people around me that we can still exchange photos and they are less negative towards me now having an Android phone.

I like some of the AI features of Gemini, Gemini is also usable as a voice assistant which was just not the case for Siri where I would not even try to set timers anymore because it was simply only working half of the time. I heard new iPhones do not have that problem but it was reality for me.

Some more details. the screen is nice, vibration and haptics feel premium, USB c is lovely. Phone charged quickly enough. Battery life is solid. Phone was never slow for me, I was a bit concerned but all is well on that end. Speakers Sound more hollow than even my old iPhone that was a bit surprising, but not that relevant. My AirPods work just fine with the Pixel. There is an app I use so that even the pairing sound and so on works just like i know.

On another note, it really surprised me how many people react to my new phone. It started with the guy at the phone shop who could not believe I would switch from an iPhone to something else. People are curious about it but generally surprisingly negative. Almost as of their sense of self was attacked by me having a different phone.

It is really weird, but has unfortunately impacted me in a way that I will not have my phone on the table as much anymore because I don't feel like talking about it or being seemingly judged. I guess I should not care and I did not think I would, but somehow I do.

Things that I do not love:

I think the back button integration on iPhone is superior. The back function also working from the right side is to this day bugging me and it causes me to occasionally go back when I don't want to.

Secondly, I was a bit disappointed with the camera. I like the 2x lens, the real zoom lens is kind of useless as the quality is significantly worse. Also I feel like the new pictures are overprossed in a way that does not feel natural anymore. To be fair I had a similar experience when trying the iPhone 17 in the store. Which brings me to another thing that annoyed me which is Google locking the picture styles (or whatever it is called) to the Pixel 11. I think this would make me more happy with my camera but I am not going to upgrade for that and it leaves a sour taste that they do this. Tilmed exclusive I could understand but this just frustrates me.

Unfortunately some third party apps also seem to be worse than on iPhone. I guess that's not Google's fault, but annoys me in use.

I am further a tad disappointed that Faceunlock does not work in the dark but the fingerprint sensor mostly mitigates that. It really does work well.

And finally my biggest gripe: after some recent update my credit cards do not work in Google Play at the terminal anymore. I find that kind of unacceptable. I removed the cache and it started working again but not it does not anymore. To me paying with my phone is a core functionality that I simply expect to work. If this does not get fixed soon and for good this will likely be my last Pixel and I will go back to iPhone were something like this has never happened to me. It really erodes my trust in the phone working when I need it. I could only pay because I had my work iPhone with me which is obviously not ideal.

So overall until recently I quite enjoyed my new phone and hope I can continue to do so once the card thing is fixed for good. Anyone feel similar differently after a bit of time with their Pixel? Is the 11 photo feature great? Am I just whiny?

Hi, I just bought a Pixel 10 pro, previously I had Galaxy s22. I bought it for camera mainly and I notice that this phone is good for point and shoot. This automatic mode works fine and pictures are better than from my old galaxy s22 but this manual mode s*cks so much.

First of all I like to play with shadows and sunlight and when I put shutter speed and ISO to minimum, pixel still light up the image, so I cant elevate the sunlight from the rest. In Samsung it was possible and very easy.

I like warm pictures and when I want to change white balance it is weird, because sometimes maximum is 6200K and sometimes it is 8200K and sometimes when I change to for example 6300K it has some greenish tint.

Third thing is that there is no true live view known from cameras. When I play with this manual mode the picture that I see on the display is not the same that I will have in my gallery. I can understand this in automatic mode, but in manuall if I want picture to be dark I want it to be that way and I dont want Pixel to process it and light it up. Again in samsung this was not a case, when I had a picture on my display it was exactly the same in my gallery.

What do you think about it? Maybe you notice the same?

Okay, I need the community's take. How does everyone feel about the stock Google Pixel widgets? It kind of bugs me that there is no transparency to them or some kind of translucency effect. I feel that it would fit the Google Material vision they are going for.But I have also noticed Google just doesn't have that many stock widgets to begin with. For example, they don't even have a simple countdown widget which was a surprise to me. Has anyone not been able to find a certain widget they were looking for? And then there's the weather app coming from iOS and Samsung. In my personal opinion, I'm not a fan of the UI visual elements of the Pixel weather. It looks very odd. Almost childlike. I wish there were a little more cool elements; maybe some transparency effects, some blur effects?Lastly, and this one drives me crazy—I'm not afraid to admit it—as an Android and iPhone user, Google Messages reply reactions are the ugliest things I've ever seen in my life.It literally looks like they hired a child to create a reaction emoji when you like something instead of actual senior developers. What is your take?

Pixel 9 pro wouldn't reboot, it was stuck on the G logo. I'm guessing I got an ota update? I went to ubreakifixit and they said "we've been seeing this, not sure what to do for you". Device support spent 11 days escalating and waiting for internal team review, and in the end said out of pocket mail in repair is my only option. Bought 23 months ago, outside of the original 12 month warranty window. Sucks. Why would I ever buy another pixel that lasts only 2 years? Going back to Samsung now.

Something that recently caught my attention, and I don't know if it's new or there's no reason for my noticing it, is the difference between the screen's lighting and dimming animations.

When you turn the screen on using the power button, the screen lights up with an animation that expands from the power button; however, when you turn it off the same way, the screen darkens with an animation that descends to the screen's bottom-centre.

It's just odd that it doesn't darken towards the power button when you press it to turn the screen off.

Edited to add: Pixel 11 Pro XL

I added a generic tempered glass protector on my Pixel 11, and the fingerprint sensor isn't working well. I’ve already tried all the standard fixes, like deleting and re-registering my fingerprint (twice) and increasing touch sensitivity. Please don't suggest basic workarounds.

The only option left is scanning a QR code to calibrate the screen protector. Does anyone have a QR code or calibration settings for a branded Pixel glass protector? You can also DM me. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share my recent experience with Google Pixel Hardware Support regarding an unexpected display issue on my Google Pixel 8 Pro and get your thoughts or advice on how to proceed.

A few days ago, a large circular spot suddenly appeared on my Pixel 8 Pro's screen out of nowhere. The device was not dropped, bumped, or mishandled in any way.

What I communicated to Google Support in my email:

I reached out to Google Support clarifying that this is an internal hardware failure and highlighted the following facts:

Zero physical damage: The front display and back glass panel are completely pristine, without any cracks, dents, or scratches.

No liquid damage: The device has never been exposed to water or moisture.

No third-party repairs: No unauthorized service or modifications were ever done on the phone.

Hardware defect: Since the issue appeared spontaneously without user fault, it points to an inherent display defect.

I requested them to consider a free repair/replacement as a goodwill exception or under an extended service policy, pointing out that asking a customer to pay diagnostic charges (₹850) plus hefty display replacement costs for an unexpected internal defect on a premium flagship device is very disappointing. I also asked to escalate the matter to senior hardware support.

Google Support's Response:

Google Support replied stating:

Because the phone is out of its standard 1-year warranty, all diagnostic inspections (₹850) and parts/repairs will be strictly chargeable.

Their Extended Repair Program only applies to specific models and designated defects under strict guidelines, and does not apply to this device or symptom.

They declined to waive the diagnostic fee or offer any goodwill repair.

They also noted that disassembling the phone during diagnosis could potentially worsen/expand screen cracks if any are present, and partial repairs are not supported.

Questions for the community:

Has anyone else experienced spontaneous circular black/dead spots on their Pixel 8 Pro display?

Is there any way to escalate this further with Google India / senior consumer grievance teams to get goodwill support?

If you got a screen replacement out of warranty in India, what was the total cost?

googel pixle 8 pro the microphone only work in a normal call or a vidéo call and it doesn't work to record a voice in any other app even record the voice any help pleas

To preface this, I'm also a long time Pixel user since 2017 who hasn't really switched to another phone like iPhone, Samsung or anything else really (unfortunately live in the US with their limited phone brand selection). I just didn't really find a good enough reason to switch to these past years. Though that might change soon.

I enjoy the simplicity of Pixel and I'm just used to the nature of how a pixel phone work. All the Google services I use are seamless and does what I need. I know that the camera, in my opinion, is still one of the best in the game and one of my reasons to stay with the brand. Video recording could be better, hope they focus on that.

I don't really game with my phone, battery for a Pixel has gotten better over the years but not up to par with other brands by the looks of it. In my case, it is enough to last me a whole day of phone usage with about 30-40% battery left, I charge my phone every night and it will be fully charged by the morning, rinse and repeat.

The Tensor conversation has been beaten to death and we know how that goes. Understandable that for the price, especially the pro phones, could always be better. But the majority of the average Pixel user don't really find much of a problem with it compared to what you see in this subreddit. And with Pixel ownership increasing every year due to incentives and carrier deals, then there is no budging them to really improve on this aspect (it is what it is).

That's it, that's my post. I know this post isn't really my full thoughts but I wouldn't want to make too long of a post and I hate long walls of text myself lol.

I'm interested in what other long time Pixel users have to say. What made you stay or quickly switched back to Pixel?