7 hidden Pixel shortcuts you in all probability aren’t utilizing
Got a Pixel? Any Pixel? These tucked-away time-savers will add valuable moments again into your day.
mohamed_hassan/Google/JR Raphael
We’re seemingly simply days away from the launch of Google’s newest Pixel cellphone — the possibly pivotal Pixel 6a midranger. So it appears protected to say the topic of Googley telephones is gonna be comin’ up a bunch within the weeks forward, with snazzy new {hardware} being the primary theme of the second.
The good factor about Pixel telephones, although, is that you do not have to have the newest and biggest mannequin with the intention to discover some fantastically helpful new tips. Google’s always updating its Pixels with options each massive and small, and it is all too simple for a few of the extra refined touches to get misplaced within the shuffle.
So at the moment, as we gear up for a brand new spherical of Pixel gear, I believed it might be a high quality time to step again and dig in to uncover a handful of splendid Pixel shortcuts that’ve been neglected and/or forgotten by many an Android-adorin’ animal.
And whereas a few of these shortcuts could seen refined, do not let your self be fooled: All these saved seconds will completely add up whenever you sprinkle ’em all through your day.
Make your approach via these seven out-of-sight Pixel time-savers — after which, when you’re nonetheless hungry for extra (you insatiable beast, you!), come join my free Pixel Academy e-course to uncover much more hidden Pixel magic.
[Related: Pixel power! 42 advanced Assistant actions for any Pixel phone]
All proper — prepared?
Pixel shortcut No. 1: The quick search starter
This first Pixel trick is tied to Android 12, which implies it will not be current on the oldest couple Pixel fashions from approach again when. But so long as you’ve got received a fairly latest Pixel machine, you possibly can fly proper into your cellphone’s fancy common search system with half the steps it usually takes — if you understand the place to search out the change.
The system we’re talkin’ about right here, in case you are not acquainted, is the search bar throughout the app drawer of your Pixel’s commonplace dwelling display screen setup. In addition to looking out via your put in apps, that bar can now pull up outcomes out of your contacts, conversations, accessible actions inside apps, and system settings in a single streamlined place. It may even take you to a daily ol’ web seek for no matter time period you are typing.
Typically, accessing that perform requires you to swipe up as soon as on your private home display screen after which faucet the bar on the prime of the app drawer that comes up. But with one teensy tweak, you possibly can eradicate that second step and preserve that helpful search system a single swipe away.
Here’s the key:
- Open your app drawer (by swiping upward anyplace on your private home display screen).
- Tap the three-dot menu icon in its upper-right nook.
- Tap “Always present keyboard” on the stunning little menu that seems.
And that is it: From this level ahead, a single swipe up on your private home display screen will mechanically focus you on that search field, together with your keyboard open and prepared for motion.
JR
Not a foul method to get began, eh?
Pixel shortcut No. 2: The dwelling display screen slide
While we’re with reference to your private home display screen, this is one other nifty Pixel time-saver few mortals are conscious of: Provided you are utilizing the usual Pixel dwelling display screen setup (and never a third-party Android launcher), anytime you are on a secondary dwelling display screen panel — as in, a panel off to the best of the first, default display screen — you possibly can swipe upward from the underside of your display screen to zap your self again to the leftmost panel.
See?
JR
No settings wanted or something uncommon; all you’ve got gotta do is know the trick. And now, you do.
Pixel shortcut No. 3: The lock display screen fast jumps
Your Pixel cellphone’s lock display screen is greater than only a gateway into your cellphone. It’s additionally a shortcut-holding command middle of its personal — and when you allow all of its accessible choices, it could prevent tons of time and provide help to hop instantly the place you want to be.
Specifically, the Pixel lock display screen can home one-tap shortcuts for opening your linked machine management panel and your Google Pay cell fee command middle. If your cellphone is locked, you will nonetheless must unlock it with the intention to proceed — hey, safety issues! — however you will eradicate the additional steps of then discovering the merchandise you want and opening it by yourself.
And particularly with regards to linked machine controls and cell fee administration, these saved seconds can go an extremely good distance.
JR
To get these two new shortcuts by yourself Pixel lock display screen:
- Open up your Pixel cellphone’s settings (by swiping down twice from the highest of the display screen and tapping the gear-shaped icon on the panel that comes up).
- Head into the Display part and faucet “Lock display screen.’
- Look for the strains labeled “Show pockets” and “Show machine controls.” Make positive the toggle subsequent to every is on and within the lively place.
This is one other one which requires Android 12, by the way in which — which means it ought to work on 2018’s Pixel 3 and better.
Pixel shortcut No. 4: The lock display screen tune companion
Most odd organisms by no means seen, however in some unspecified time in the future within the not-too-distant previous, our purty ol’ Pixels received the choice so as to add Google’s glorious song-identifying system instantly onto the lock display screen. That approach, the subsequent time you hear that one tune by that one band (you understand, that one…), you can keep away from losing an oz. of vitality as you desperately search to determine it.
All it takes is one fast flip of a change so as to add it onto your personal Googley cellphone. Provided your Pixel’s received Android 12 on it:
- Head again into your system settings and once more open the Display part.
- Once extra, faucet “Lock display screen.”
- Tap the road labeled “Now Playing.”
- Make positive the primary toggle on the prime of the display screen is on — after which additionally activate the toggle subsequent to “Show search button on lock display screen.”
Your Pixel will nonetheless mechanically present you the total identify and artist of any actively taking part in tune when it detects it. But now, along with that, you will have a button that’ll seem in your lock display screen when any tune is taking part in and your Pixel hasn’t but found out what it’s.
JR
Tap that little button, there in lower-center space of the lock display screen, and…
JR
Ta-da! How ’bout them apples?
Here’s an additional little bonus shortcut, too: Whenever you see a tune recognized in your lock display screen, whether or not your Pixel picked it up mechanically otherwise you used your fancy new icon to pressure it, you possibly can faucet the identify of the tune to bop proper over to your Pixel’s artfully hidden Now Playing historical past space. There, you possibly can favourite the tune for future reference, look it up on YouTube or YouTube Music, add it instantly right into a playlist, share it someplace, or get extra data about it on the spot.
Now, what was that blasted tune known as, once more?
Pixel shortcut No. 5: The one-tap mode shifter
If you are utilizing the identical Pixel cellphone for each work and private functions, shifting between your work focus and your after-work pursuits generally is a little bit of a problem. But worry not, on your Pixel’s packin’ a super-handy system for making that shift simpler than you ever imagined doable.
It’s a spiffy multistep shortcut known as Focus Mode. And when you set it up as soon as, you can conceal and silence your non-work-related distractions — or, when you desire, silence your work-related interruptions — with a single quick faucet anytime you want somewhat peace and quiet (in both route).
To get began:
- Prance again into your system settings, optionally while whistling a jaunty tune.
- Open up the Digital Wellbeing part and faucet “Focus mode.”
- Decide which apps you need to have the ability to swiftly silence, and one after the other, choose ’em.
JR
Got it? Good. Now, you possibly can both use the “Set a schedule” possibility on that very same display screen to automate when the apps you chose shall be hidden and unable to inform you — or, if you would like to flip that change manually as you see match, you possibly can convey it entrance and middle for straightforward entry in your cellphone’s Quick Settings part:
- Swipe down twice from the highest of your display screen to open up your Quick Settings.
- Tap the pencil-shaped icon within the lower-left nook to edit it.
- Scroll down till you see the “Focus mode” tile.
- Press and maintain your finger onto it and drag it up right into a outstanding place (and bear in mind, the primary 4 tiles are those you see with only a single swipe down from the highest of the display screen, so for the simplest doable entry, place it in a type of positions).
Ahh — if solely the remainder of life might be so easy.
Pixel shortcut No. 6: The digicam flip-flop
We’ll wrap up with a pair o’ camera-related shortcuts on your Pixel — ‘trigger even when you’re a Very Serious Professional™, odds are, you utilize your cellphone to take the occasional photograph (of one thing very critical {and professional}, in fact).
So make a psychological notice of this: Anytime you are in your Pixel cellphone’s digicam, you possibly can flip between the front-facing and rear-facing lens by twisting your wrist twice. Twist, twist, flip. Easy, proper?
If for some cause that does not be just right for you, head into the System part of your Pixel cellphone’s settings, faucet “Gestures,” then faucet “Quickly open digicam” and ensure the toggle there may be activated. That possibility’s usually activated by default, however typically, it could get turned off inadvertently.
And lastly…
Pixel shortcut No. 7: The secret digicam swipes
One of my favourite hidden Pixel shortcuts is the sequence of time-saving swipe gestures constructed proper into that Google-scented Camera app.
Specifically, you possibly can swipe down anyplace in the primary viewfinder space to open your digicam’s settings panel — and you may swipe left or proper anyplace in that very same space to simply change between modes with out having to stretch all the way in which to the underside of the display screen.
Who knew, proper?!
And bear in mind: There’s heaps extra the place this got here from. Come be part of my fully free Pixel Academy e-course for seven full days of pleasant Pixel information — beginning with much more highly effective camera-centric smarts and transferring from there to superior picture magic, next-level nuisance reducers, and oodles of different alternatives for useful Pixel intelligence.
The energy’s already in your arms. All you’ve got gotta do is be taught to embrace it.