It takes so much longer to do simple tasks and needs permissions for everything. I would love to not give an AI agent access to my entire Google drive, email, everything etc just to add milk to the grocery list. Im livid all the time and never had any issues with assistant and never found myself wanting anything boring assistant couldn't do I just wanna set a timer man I don't need you to kiss my ass. I hate not being able to opt out of AI usage. I would give my left nut for boring assistant back.

I've been a pixel user since the very first one dropped back in 2016. But I've also always been a Samsung fan due to their ingenuity and their folding phones.

So because of this I tend to switch back and forth every year from Pixel to Samsung, back to Pixel, then back to Samsung, etc.

And over the last three years or so it's gotten more and more difficult for me to want to switch back to Pixel devices from Samsung because of the lack of innovation and overall hardware disadvantages compared to the competition at this price range.

Switching from the Samsung Fold 8 to the pixel 11 pro XL was easily the most difficult decision I've had to make due to all the setbacks this year compared to last year's pixel.

Smaller battery, not much improvement with the G6 processor and GPU, less RAM for the base model, and for the brand new feature...they added a notification light on the back that only works for phone calls?

Yeah... I too wasn't excited about this year's Pixel after they revealed it to the world, but I decided to stick to traditions and I picked it up anyway.

And man... Am I glad that I did. I absolutely am in love with my Pixel 11 pro XL. This has got to be the fastest, most fluid Pixel I've ever used. The software has been nothing short of perfect for my day to day use. The speakers are great, the wonderful haptics are here once again, the cameras are the best I've seen on a smartphone, pixel snap is great for all my accessories, and the battery life has actually been stellar despite being smaller than last year. Easily getting 6-7 hours of screen on time with 20% left before it goes on the charger at night time.

Sure, I do miss that large inner display of the Fold 8 for scrolling social media, gaming, and watching YouTube content... But man I don't miss the software bugs and hangups whenever I opened the device to use that inner screen. I also just never took advantage of it as much as I should have. 99% of the time I used the phone on the front screen which for most purposes felt a bit too small for my liking. And I also wasn't a fan of the cameras. So I decided to make the switch back to Pixel.

In the end... Despite the poor hardware specs on paper, the poor reception from tech reviewers, and lack of real innovation/new features...The Pixel 11 I have to say has become my favorite smartphone that I've had in a very long time. I wish I could chalk it up to just one major reason... Or even three... But I just can't explain it. There is just something about Pixel phones that keeps me coming back despite their issues and increasing prices.

Hopefully next year Google will actually innovate upon the Pixel line by giving us new features that aren't just a light on the back and MAYBE actually increase the CPU and GPU power to finally compete with the competition.

But until then I'm perfectly happy with my Pixel 11 pro XL despite its few setbacks.

Pixel 9 pro fold suddenly developed an issue with the front cameras. Contacted Google support and damn they just upgraded it to the Pixel 11 pro fold. Unreal stuff. Got an upgrade on the storage as well. Thanks Google.

How do I get voice to text within text messages to use a specific spelling for a person's name? I've added their contact with the correct spelling and the phonetic spelling. I've also added the correct spelling to my personal dictionary. The recommendation comes up when I type but I want it to spell correctly and when I use voice to text in the messaging app.

Edit: there is a setting in the messaging app to give access to contacts to use their names. I enabled. If I say just the name it will update it after a few seconds. If I use the name in a sentence it does not update it. I created a contact for the person. In the contact I added the phoenentic spelling using other to expand the fields within the contact card

Just got it on my 8a. 111mb.

This is my first Pixel after 8 Samsungs in a row, and it's been a letdown from day one.

My first phone had the white screen defect and had to be replaced. The replacement was fine until the latest update. Before that I got a full day of heavy use. Now I'm lucky to get 8 hours, and right after the update it was dying in a few.

What I've tried:

·       Diagnostics say the charging is "Normal"

·       Turned off Adaptive Charging (it kept stopping at 50% overnight)

·       Turned off weather on the Always-On Display

·       Restricted background use for my most-used apps

·       Cleared cache and storage for Google Play Services and Device Health Services

·       Restarted it more times than I can count

While better, I still don’t a full day of use out of this phone. I lost about 45% in under an hour just playing music, and it still drains fast sitting idle. How does this happen with a “flagship” product?

Is anyone else seeing this on the current build? Has anyone fixed it without a factory reset? I'm not wiping my phone every time an update comes out.

I've seen the 11 being offered basically free, but after this I'm not sure I want another Pixel. Is it any better, or is this just how Pixels are? I’m strongly considering ditching Pixel all together.

My free year is coming to the end and I'm torn if I should do the 19.99 a month. 5tb of cloud storage is the main reason, but I have found myself using the A.I occasionally. Anybody else?

Considering jumping from old samsung Z fold, to pixel fold 11.

Want to have the option to root.

Not sold locally, have to ship. Most shipping is from USA.

As I understand some phones have bootloader locked permenantly.

Is there A way to check using IMEI, model SKU and model number. Werher particular phone can be rooted?

As the title says, I updated my phone (Pixel 7) in September or August) and it ruined it. It's lagging and freezing and there's nothing I can do about it. I removed as many apps as possible, freed space but nothing works. My phone gets slow sometimes and none of the recent fixes have done anything to make it better. I want to get a new phone at some point but this update thing is just throwing me off Pixels and I freaking love Pixel phones 😢

I have Pixel Bud Pro. Recently I take them out of the case to connect. They "ding" my phone says "connecting" and it takes 1-5 minutes to actually play audio. Often I need to put them back in the case a few times to get audio out, despite hearing the "ding" which used to mean that I was good to go.

Additionally I'm using WHOOP and my Bluetooth connection keeps dropping out there. It can't sync the data. I need to "force close" the android app to get it to sync again.

Someone on the Bluetooth team broke something, this was never a problem on the Pixel 9.

Hello everyone, I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with this. I have a weird bug in Google Chat.

I have a certain message that whenever a picture is sent to me in that conversation, when I press on it, a picture from October 12th opens. The new picture will show briefly and then it'll display the one from October 12th. It's always the same picture.

I've tried clearing the app storage and cache and even uninstalling and reinstalling the app, but nothing fixes it. Anyone have any idea how i might be able to use resolve this issue?

Hi all

For the last couple of days I've been having an issue with the volume on my Pixel 7 pro, where it will go down to zero without me pressing anything.

This is not related to the "lowering volume automatically because it's too loud", but seems to be related to the hardware itself.

The "up" button is still click, but the "down" is super sensitive and will go down without clicking, sometimes when I'm not touching the phone, which is not ideal when listening to music.

The phone has been in a case since new and this has only cropped up in the last few days.

Any tips?

Vengo de usar un S24 Ultra y posteriormente un Oppo Find X9 Pro. Yo podía poner cualquier aplicación en ventana flotante, pero en este solo puedo usar las bubbles y no es compatible con todas las aplicaciones.

¿Sabéis si hay alguna forma de poder usar cualquier aplicación en ventana flotante?

I have an ir camera that plugs directly into my smartphone. I've had no trouble with connecting this device and app on my older pixel 6. Does anyone know what has changed? The newer pixel 11 won't recognize this device.

Pixel 11 YouTube lag

Title of post. I have my apps laid out on my home screen and now I see duplicate icons because of the pinned predictions of your recently used apps. I can't figure out how to remove this feature - any ideas?

As of this morning, I have 4 apps so far that won't load. Pixel 11. The loading screen for the app comes up, and then nothing, it just hangs there.

I've checked for updates, cleared caches, and restarted the phone twice, no luck.

Anyone else having this issue?

Edit: apps are now back online. See my comment - likely force stopping the apps, possibly turning off private DNS. Not sure what caused it to begin with though.

Hey, so I'm having a few issues trying to get RCS up and running. It'll be stuck on connecting indefinitely I'm not sure if it's a phone issue or network issue, but I've tried the basic troubleshooting and nothing seems to have worked. If anyone has any ideas/fixes they're greatly appreciated!

Hear me out. I need to vent about a massive, unadvertised software regression that completely ruins the experience of owning a premium device like the Pixel 11 Pro.

For context, I am holding a $1,000+ piece of top-tier hardware equipped with a highly marketed custom Tensor chip that Google loves to brag about for its "revolutionary on-device AI capabilities." Yet, this phone completely fails to perform basic, local processing for utilities that a $200 phone from a decade ago could handle effortlessly without an internet connection.

The Issue: Forced Cloud Processing for Local Actions

If I turn off my Wi-Fi and mobile data and use voice commands to perform a purely local action—like turning on the flashlight or opening a local app like Google Keep—the assistant completely locks down. It throws up a screen demanding a network connection.

Think about how absurd that is. Google Assistant and Gemini are completely incapable of translating basic audio waves into text locally just to flip a physical hardware switch or open a locally stored database on my own device storage. Instead, the software forces every single spoken syllable to take a round-trip journey to a Google server. If you have no cell signal or want to save data, your device's voice control is effectively deaf and useless.

The "Solutions" are a Joke

When looking for alternatives, the workarounds are completely anti-user: • Voice Access: Google pushes you toward "Voice Access" as an offline alternative. But Voice Access isn't a natural voice assistant; it's a clunky screen-navigation tool built for motor-impairment accessibility. To turn on the flashlight offline, you literally have to swipe your menu down twice, shout "show numbers," look for a random digit overlaid on your screen, and yell "Tap 7." This is completely ridiculous and unintuitive. • The Gemini Takeover: If you try to switch to the standalone Gemini app for better local processing, it demands a total system takeover to replace Google Assistant. If you refuse to let it act as your default assistant, the app just quits. "Make me your assistant or else I am going to sulk and just go home." -Gemini

A Deliberate Downgrade

This isn't a hardware limitation. The hardware in our hands is fully capable of processing basic text-to-speech registries locally. Google actually used to have offline speech recognition voice packs built directly into Android for exactly these situations, but they have systematically deprecated and removed them in their aggressive push to force everyone onto cloud-centric LLMs.

They are intentionally crippling highly capable, expensive hardware to tether the user to an always-online data pipeline. It is never going to be okay that basic device accessibility is treated as an all-or-nothing cloud·dependent service.

If you are thinking about buying a new Pixel phone under the impression that you are getting powerful, independent on-device processing—be warned. The moment you lose internet access, your smart assistant turns into a brick.

Bottom line: if I pay $1000 for a phone that has some really advanced hardware on it, but that hardware is locked out for Google's exclusive use then, I have a lot of questions.

I bought pixel 10, a week ago, now I noticed that while scrolling instagram, it is making the profile icon in botton left too bright, whitish. Anyone know the fix for this?

Hello,

When I try to use dictation on the keyboard of my pixel 6a I often have to repeat myself several times because it doesn't seem to hear me or pick up or process my voice.

It stops on its own and I have to start over by pressing the keyboard's microphone button at least four times. I have to try it before it starts typing what I dictate.

Is this something that has happened to you?

What's wrong with my keyboard?

Thanks

Hi all,

I'm experiencing a bug on my Pixel 11 Pro XL where, when my phone is charging, my selected screen saver appears for a fraction of a second before the screen goes to a digital clock on a black background. I chose the battery screen saver.

Additionally, before restarting my phone, I saw a bug where the "When to show" setting in my screen saver settings was unavailable when my phone was charging.

Has anyone else experienced these bugs?