7 Google Pixel settings you must change this second
Got considered one of Google’s Pixel telephones? These simply ignored changes will unlock a few of your cellphone’s most spectacular superior powers.
Google/JR Raphael, IDG
Part of the Pixel’s major attraction is the cellphone’s phenomenal software program. All Android experiences aren’t created equal, as anybody who’s spent seven seconds with an out-of-the-box Samsung setup can inform you, and Google’s clear and easy strategy to Android is a large piece of what makes a Pixel so nice to make use of.
Still, whereas a Pixel could also be completely peachy from the second you energy it on, Google’s smartphone software program is stuffed with hidden options and superior choices that may make your expertise much more distinctive.
And whether or not you are organising a shiny new Pixel 6a proper now or cradling an older Pixel mannequin in your suspiciously sticky paw, taking the time to assume by a few of your cellphone’s most simply ignored settings can take your Pixel journey to an entire new degree.
So seize no matter Pixel you’ve got received, seize your self a grape soda for good measure, and let’s unearth a few of your cellphone’s biggest Googley secrets and techniques. And you should definitely come take a look at my free Pixel Academy e-course to uncover much more superior intelligence lurking inside your favourite Pixel cellphone whenever you’re finished.
Google Pixel setting No. 1: Your pleasant phone-holding genie
Some of the Pixel’s most sensible options revolve across the sensible bits of Googley goodness obtainable on the cellphone calling entrance — and but, most of these parts are off by default and barely emphasised in Google’s advertising. Go determine, eh?
[RELATED: 7 hidden Pixel shortcuts you probably aren’t using]
First and foremost is the Pixel’s impossibly helpful Hold for Me system, which is able to robotically acknowledge whenever you’re positioned on maintain on a name and supply to shoulder the burden for you. The system will really monitor the decision in your behalf after which audibly warn you when an actual (alleged) human comes again on the road — so you’ll be able to go about consuming your grape soda and taking part in your tiddlywinks with out having to fret about lacking a factor.
JR
Hold the cellphone, although: It’s as much as you to first discover and activate the factor. Otherwise, that fizzy purple beverage and delightfully odd pastime of yours will stored on maintain indefinitely.
So this is the reply — supplied you are palming a Pixel within the US, Australia, or Canada, the place the characteristic is presently obtainable:
- Open up your Pixel’s cellphone app.
- Tap the three-dot icon within the upper-right nook and choose “Settings.”
- Tap “Hold for Me.”
- Flip the toggle on the display that comes up into the on place.
And that is it: Now simply wait on your subsequent rage-inducing customer support name and look in your Pixel’s display for the supply to carry in your behalf — and check out to not rub your newfound energy in your iPhone-carrying companions’ faces an excessive amount of, all proper?
Google Pixel setting No. 2: Your name interception assistant
Google’s spam blocking know-how is second to none and really top-of-the-line components of utilizing a Pixel. (Seriously — simply ask a few of these iPhone-lovin’ amigos of yours.)
But whereas the Pixel’s spam-blocking fundamentals are on by default, your cellphone’s most superior annoyance blockers require you to allow ’em as soon as and choose into their magic.
So in the beginning, hop again into your Pixel Phone app’s settings, and this time:
- Tap the road labeled “Spam and Call Screen,” then faucet “Call Screen.”
- Under “Unknown Call Settings,” faucet “Spam” and alter its setting to “Silently decline.”
- Next, faucet “Possibly faked numbers” and alter its setting to “Automatically display; decline robocalls.”
- If you actually wish to go all out, take into account adjusting the screening conduct for personal or hidden callers, too, in order that your Pixel robotically screens these kinds of calls to seek out out who’s calling and what they need earlier than buggin’ you with any buzzing. Just bear in mind that you simply may find yourself interfering with reliable calls from docs’ places of work and different such venues with that setting enabled, so use your personal finest judgment as as to if it is smart for you.
Call Screen is on the market on Pixels within the US in addition to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the UK. If you are not in a kind of areas, do not panic: We’ll get to some much less geographically restricted options in a minute.
Google Pixel setting No. 3: Your enterprise name IQ booster
Spam calls apart, one of many largest phone-related annoyances in our trendy lives is the cryptic incoming name from an organization. Are they calling for an actual purpose? Is it really necessary? Or is it simply extra time-wasting, patience-testing poppycock?
Your Pixel may help separate the true from the garbage. Just march your method again into these Phone app settings once more, and:
- Once extra, faucet “Spam and Call Screen.”
- Then faucet the toggle subsequent to “Verified Calls” to show it into the on place.
Now, at any time when a “collaborating enterprise” dares to interrupt your life with an unsolicited name, your Pixel will present the corporate’s identify and brand so you understand it is reliable and likewise present you the explanation it is calling (e.g. “to bother the dwelling daylights out of you”) proper in your display.
Not unhealthy, eh?
Google Pixel setting No. 4: Your cellphone menu magician
Maybe my favourite Pixel cellphone characteristic of all is a comparatively current addition known as Direct My Call. It’s obtainable solely within the US and with English in the mean time — grumble, grumble, sorry, worldwide Pixel comrades! — however when you’re within the States and talking one thing vaguely paying homage to the English language, it may be a large hassle-saver and one of many biggest benefits to having a Pixel in your pocket.
Plain and easy, Direct My Call senses whenever you’ve entered the hellscape of an organization cellphone maze and exhibits you all of the obtainable choices as tap-ready buttons in your display. That method, you’ll be able to skip over the standard take a look at of your sanity and keep away from having to pay attention to each flippin’ possibility at each level alongside the way in which.
And all you’ve got gotta do is allow it as soon as:
- Make your method again to your Phone app’s settings and faucet “Direct My Call.”
- Now flip the toggle subsequent to “Direct My Call” into the on place.
- Do a joyous little jig of celebration after which you should definitely take a look at your display the following time you end up in cellphone menu hell.*
JR
*Joyous jig non-obligatory however extremely beneficial.
Google Pixel setting No. 5: Your business-finding BFF
All proper — one final phone-specific setting on your favourite Pixel product.
When you must dial a close-by enterprise, your Pixel can prevent the step of looking for its identify, discovering the quantity, then tapping that or copying it to get again into your Phone app and prepared make the decision.
Yeesh — neglect that mess. Save your self steps and unnecessary brain-aches by merely looking for the enterprise you need immediately in your Pixel’s Phone app after which inserting the decision proper then and there, in a single streamlined spot.
First, you must activate all the associated choices:
- Gallop your method again into these Phone app settings one last time.
- Tap the road labeled “Nearby locations.”
- Make certain the primary “Nearby locations” toggle is on — which it in all probability will likely be.
- Next, faucet the toggle subsequent to “Personalized search outcomes” to flip it into the on place. That’ll let the Phone app reference your common ol’ search historical past when searching for enterprise outcomes to extend the chances of providing up the place you need immediately.
- And lastly, faucet the “Location permission” line to grant the Phone app the permission it must function intelligently.
Another one down. And now we’re prepared to consider a few broader, non-calling-specific Pixel options price discovering.
Google Pixel setting No. 6: Your tune superbrain
You know that feeling when a tune is taking part in and you may’t for the lifetime of you determine what it’s? (FYI, there’s not less than a 70% probability it is one thing by Michael Bolton.)
Your Pixel may help — by proactively figuring out any tune taking part in in your neighborhood and placing its identify and the artist chargeable for it proper in your lock display.
JR
To get the characteristic going:
- Head into your Pixel system settings (by swiping down twice from the highest of the display after which tapping the gear-shaped icon on the panel that seems).
- Tap “Display” adopted by “Lock display” and “Now Playing.”
- Flip the toggle subsequent to “Identify songs taking part in close by” into the on place.
Go forward and flip the toggle subsequent to “Show search button on lock display” into the on place whilst you’re there, too. That’ll provide you with a handbook button on the lock display to start out up a sound search when a tune is taking part in and your cellphone cannot (or possibly simply chooses to not, resulting from an comprehensible second of Bolton overload) determine it for you.
Google Pixel setting No. 7: Your on-demand tune reminiscence
Speaking of your Pixel’s song-identifying prowess, you would be forgiven for forgetting, however your cellphone really maintains an ongoing checklist of each single tune it identifies all through your day.
Make it extra-easy to entry that treasure trove of Bolton ballads by inserting a one-tap shortcut immediately in your Pixel’s house display:
- Head again into that very same space of your Pixel settings we have been simply spelunkin’ round — the “Now Playing” part inside “Display” after which “Lock display.”
- See the road labeled “Now Playing historical past”? Tap it. Tap it with gusto, garsh dern it!
- Look for the choice on the high of the display that comes up subsequent so as to add a shortcut onto your private home display.
One extra faucet there, and ta-da: Every tune your Pixel picks up through the day will all the time be a single press away.
JR
And with that, we have made it by our first set of sensible Pixel settings price altering. Stay tuned for a second set of stellar Pixel settings quickly — and do not forget to come back be a part of my free Pixel Academy e-course to unearth oodles of excellent hidden options and time-saving methods within the meantime.