A new ‘Pixel Glow’ feature could be the Google Pixel 11’s secret weapon

• A mention of a “Pixel Glow” feature was found in an Android 17 beta
• This feature would apparently use colored lights on the back of the phone to alert you to notifications.
• This would likely require dedicated hardware, so it could be a Pixel 11 feature.

It’s getting harder and harder for phones to differentiate themselves from one another, but Google may have found a way to help the Pixel 11 series stand out from at least most of its competitors.

Its secret weapon might be something called “Pixel Glow,” which Android Authority found mention of while digging through the latest Android 17 beta. The site found a screen — which you can see below — detailing that Pixel Glow uses “subtle light and colors on the back of your device to notify you of important activity when it’s face down.”

So, it seems like this feature would use dedicated colored lights to alert you to notifications, and reading between the lines, it might be possible for different colors or patterns to notify you of different things, so you can know what type of notification your phone received without picking it up.

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You can already use the “Flash Notifications” feature to have the camera flash alert you when you receive a notification, but Pixel Glow appears to be more advanced than that.