r/GooglePixel

Hey! I’ve been using iPhones since the iPhone 3G… so a long time!

I’m very tempted by the Pixel 11 Pro. I’ve watched YouTube videos and the camera seems amazing (the main reason I use a phone really).

What are your honest thoughts? As someone coming from an iPhone, do you think it would be good?

If I do get a Pixel, I’d have to change my watch too as I have an Apple Watch. The pixel watch 5 looks smart?

So these are the past 4 interactions I've had with my new Google Gemini assistant.

1. Set reminder 1a) I can't set reminders. You need to enable this feature which is about image generation.

I wanted to complain about that being the case and wanted the exact wording so I ask it again

2. Set reminder 2a) Reminder set

Now I know it didn't set a reminder because I didn't give it any details. I wanted to see what it did.

3. Open Reminders
4. Okay, I've opened your reminders

Absolutely nothing happened here, so I asked it again

4. You didn't open my reminders, open my reminders 4a) I can't directly open apps on your phone.

What the FUCK IS GOING ON. Fuck this piece of shit. Anyone defending Gemini is a shill. This is a nightmare user experience and if you say it isn't you're a fucking liar.

My phone keeps accidentally touching the screen when it's in my pocket, which turns off Wi-Fi, mobile data, Bluetooth, and other functions. Is there a solution?

To add to that, it seems the touch-to-wake and raise-to-wake options are causing the problem; I've already disabled them. In lock screen mode, the quick access buttons are accessible immediately after waking the screen. Additionally, something personally relevant is that I have sweaty hands and often experience static electricity, which might be related to the material of my clothing.

Of course, I still hope Google can solve this problem.

Say what you will about everything else with the 11 family, but Rambler is fantastic. I'm across the country dealing with a family medical crisis and have needed to take notes and send long texts non stop and it has been impeccable. Most useful new thing I've seen in any new phone in quite some time.

Hello - I upgraded from Pixel 5 to Pixel 10 PRO XL and was amazed to see a big difference in the camera quality. However, that excitement quickly vanished as soon as I started exploring the night skies with my pixel. My Pixel 5 was damn good at Astrophotography and I even clicked Milky Way Galaxy with it but this new Pixel 10 PRO XL is just blurring out everything, such as start and make them appear like a blurry white dots. The quality is so poor that I feel maybe my phone is defected. Is it normal for Pixel 10 Pro XL ?

Thanks

Have a new Pixel 11 Pro XL. Anyone else having an issue with the screenshot app? When I go into the app, I get this message."MODEL DOWNLOADS PAUSED Connect to Wi-Fi to continue downloading the Al models in the background". The same message is showing up in my notification panel. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling, clearing the cache, deleting the cache in the AI Core app, and deleting the cache in Google Play Services, and I've run out of options. I am connected via Wi-Fi to the hotspot of another phone by the way. It continues to show that message. Just wondering if anyone else has found a solution.

I've been on the Google phone train for a while. My first Google device was the Nexus 7 (boy did I love that tablet), with my first phone being the Pixel 2XL once Google acquired HTC (the HTC One is still my favorite phone ever). I'm currently on the 9 Pro XL.

I can't remember everything clearly, but I remember there being non-OS benefits to owning a Google phone, such as free unlimited photo storage, which has since gone away. Are there any remaining reasons like this to continue owning a Pixel?

I find myself here because I'd like to game more on my phone, and Tensor just isn't supported well, nor is it very performant.

My Pixel 9 screen is broken. Black screen. When activated, green dots galore. I can't use my phone at all. If I plugged into my Chromebook with a USB, is there a website that'll allow me to mirror my Pixel screen and use it? I really need this. Badly. Any suggestions would be helpful.

One thing I think many people overlook is Pixel’s biometric security. On supported Pixel models, Face Unlock can meet Class 3 biometric requirements, which means it can be used by apps that accept Class 3 biometrics—not just for unlocking the phone.

For example, supported payment and banking apps can use biometric authentication instead of requiring you to enter a PIN every time.

And all of this while keeping the front camera as a simple punch-hole design.

I think this is one of those small Pixel features that deserves way more attention.

No new apps. Storage half empty. Same usage as a month ago, yet basic navigation and switching between apps is stuttery. It's most apparent when taking a screenshot. There's a 3 second pause before the screenshot is captured.

I have a Pixel 8 and like almost every one, last year I got the infamous green line issue on my display. The problems I faced then:

• Google authorized service centers are more scarce than unicorns in my country. So of course, I had to travel to another city 4 hours away to get it repaired under warranty.
• Even under a warranty, I had to pay for the "diagnosis charge" that the service centers asks for which was not a small amount for inspecting the phone.
• If that wasn't all, I did NOT know that I needed to format the phone before submitting it - they told me right then that I needed to do that or else they won't accept my phone. I lost all my data.

Cut to six-seven months later:

• I don't know if the "professionals" at the authorized service center were untrained, but months after I got my phone repaired, dust started to accumulate inside the display over the front camera.
• Pissed at Google, I contacted them again for repairs (essentially, I told them they only needed to wipe off the dust since now they had compromised my IP68 resistance (I guess)).
• They gave me an estimated cost - which was absurd.
• I went again to an authorized service center - which in itself is a task. The modus operandi of their staff is beyond me.
• I got it inspected and they outright denied accepting the device for repair citing a "display damage risk" and the "chances of my front camera not being able to produce sharp images as before". WTF.
• I asked them to consult their senior engineer and they agreed to do that free of cost (how generous of them!); they came back citing the same denial and asked me to change the display and the camera both. BOTH!
• I asked them how much it would cost to get the display and camera changed. Then they gave me the cost...a gut-wrenching figure.
• The guy was nice and he advised me to keep using the for a year until the camera becomes unusable.

Google - if you can't make good, durable phones and establish reliable service centers then stop promising 7 years of software updates. People would not be able to use subpar hardware until that long. Just effing stop. It's not just about Pixel 8s - Pixels 9s have also suffered the same fate.

I used to be a Google fanboy but their sheer negligence and ignorance is driving me nuts.

I'm currently using a P8P at my apartment in the city, using the hotspot. I'm only getting 1-2 bar signal strength most of the time. This really limits my hotspot speed with my computer and laptop. I am willing to get a newer Pixel phone if they have better signal strength.

Last night while working my phone decided I needed to use my PIN instead of fingerprint to unlock, but doesn't accept my PIN any more. I've tried every variation of it, even old PINs, and I feel like I'm gaslighting myself but I know I've entered in what was the correct PIN multiple times now. Apparently this has happened to others before but I haven't found the fix. I can factory reset but really don't want to lose all my data since I didn't make a back up.

I want to know if there's some way I can have Drive perform a backup while the device is still locked, but I'm assuming not. I've even tried to use adb commands to reset the PIN, I had developer options enabled but apparently not USB debugging so that isn't working either.

I don't know if anybody else is having this problem, but when I use Gemini, recently it's telling me to update, when both Google Gemini and Google are updated It's telling me to clear the cache, also clear the data/storage in Google services and in Google Play store. I don't know about that. Last time I cleared something, I was ready to start my whole phone over, so if anybody can help me with this, please.Thank you

Has anyone else had their Pixel 6 basically brick itself after the recent September 2026 update?

Mine was working normally, but now it seems completely dead. The screen stays totally black and I can't get it to boot at all.

So far I've tried:

• Holding the power button for 30–60+ seconds
• Power + Volume Down to try to enter Fastboot
• Power + Volume Up
• Connecting it to a charger
• Connecting it to my Mac via USB
• Trying different boot/restart combinations

Nothing shows on the screen, no Google logo, battery icon, vibration, Fastboot screen, or recovery menu.

My Mac also doesn't seem to react when I plug the phone in. I'm going to check adb devices, fastboot devices, and the USB devices through Terminal as well, but so far there's no obvious sign that the computer can see it.

The strange part is that the phone gets noticeably warm/hot when I hold the power button and try to turn it on. So it seems like something inside is still drawing power, even though absolutely nothing appears on the screen.

This happened around the time of the September update, which is why I'm wondering whether the update could have caused some kind of firmware/boot issue rather than the phone randomly dying at exactly the same time.

I've also found Google's Pixel Update and Software Repair tool, but from what I understand it requires the phone to actually enter Fastboot first — which mine currently won't do.

I'm trying to avoid a factory reset or anything that would wipe the phone because I still have data on it that I'd really like to recover.

Has anyone with a Pixel 6 experienced something similar after a recent update?

Especially interested if your phone had:

• Completely black screen
• No Fastboot/recovery
• No USB detection
• Phone still heating up when attempting to boot

And if you managed to recover it, what actually worked? At this point I'm trying to figure out whether there's still some software/bootloader recovery method I haven't tried, or whether this is likely a motherboard/power issue and I need to send it to Google for repair.

Finally the Gboard writing tools are available on my Google Pixel 11 Pro XL in EEA (Europe).

After today's (3rd October 2026) Gboard software update writing tools popped up.