It’s no secret that the leap from the Pixel 10 series to the Pixel 11 series is pretty minimal.One of the few genuinely new features is the “HiLight” LED notification light on the back of all four models.Unfortunately, Google heavily limited what it can do, but that’s not a problem for the Android community.
I recently wrote about how disappointed I am with HiLight on my Pixel 11 Pro Fold.At the end of the article, I mentioned that I had no doubt someone would figure out how to make it better, and that’s exactly what’s happened.GitHub user DhananjayBhosale released an app that does the work Google didn’t bother with.
Related The Pixel 11’s flashiest new feature makes me worry about Google The general consensus on the Pixel 11 series is that not much sets it apart from last year’s models.One of the few highlights is the “HiLight” LED panel on the camera bar.It’s a cool idea in theory, but painfully underwhelming in reality—and it makes me worry about Google.
Posts By Joe Fedewa Out of the box, HiLight on the Pixel 11 series lights up for two reasons: Hands-free Gemini interaction and phone calls from your favorite contacts.For the phone calls, you get exactly five (5) colors to choose from.That is the end of HiLight’s default functionality.
DhananjayBhosale’s app—called “HiLight Studio”—greatly expands on HiLight’s abilities.In fact, it lets you do pretty much anything you want.That includes app notifications with custom colors, animations for new messages, colors from your wallpaper, a Quick Settings tile, and tons more.
It turns HiLight into the fun playground that it should have been from the start.Close Now, you will need to do a bit of work to enable HiLight Studio after sideloading it from GitHub, but it’s not wildly difficult.The developer recommends using an app called “Shizuku” to automate the ADB process, and that’s what I used.
It only took a minute or two.Find the full installation instructions, along with the APK file, on the GitHub page.Subscribe to the newsletter for Android mod tips Join our newsletter to get curated deep dives into Android customization, community-made fixes, and clear install guidance for Pixel features.
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It’s always awesome to see the Android community come through with functionality that a manufacturer should have included.HiLight had the potential to be super cool and useful, but Google did very little with it.Now, Pixel 11 owners can actually take advantage of one of the rare, unique features they have—and maybe more people will consider buying one.
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