Earlier this month, we first reported on Pixel Glow, a new feature in the works for future Pixel phones and the included Pixel Laptop, and thanks to recent updates, a few more details have now surfaced.
In our initial report, we discovered that Pixel Glow “uses subtle light and color on the back of your device to notify you of important activity when it’s face down.”
But unfortunately, there is still no clear explanation of how it works, where it appears, or what else it might be related to. All we know about the bat is that it will work with Gemini, as well as alert you to “calls from favorites.”
Now there are a few more nuances.
About APK Insight: In this APK Insight post, we have decompiled the latest version of the app that Google has uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APK for Android apps), we can see various lines of code inside this token for possible future features. Please note that Google may or may not ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to launch those closer to completion, but just to show you what they’ll look like if they ship. With that in mind, read on.
The Pixel Diagnostics program has lines around the “Color LED Check” that emits a “Pixel Glow” in red, green, and blue. The test can help identify malfunctioning LEDs by requiring user confirmation. Some of these lines were also present in previous versions of Diagnostics.
Color LED check The LED lights will turn red, green and blue in sequence. Turn the device to observe. A light bulb that will change color in the test. Blue light abnormality Do you see the LED lights changing correctly? Unsuccessful again passes Please confirm the color LED result Green light abnormality Please turn the device on Color LED Red light abnormality
People already Android Authority were the first to see these strings and we were able to confirm their existence.
Upon further digging, we also found that Google uses eight LEDs for “Pixel Glow”, an additional error message “Not all 8 Color LEDs found” and a message that appears when one of the lights has a hardware failure.
The number of lights here suggests that the Pixel Glow isn’t just a notification LED, but is likely something bigger, regardless of what device it appears on.
In addition to details on the Pixel Glow on phones, we’ve also seen a new animation that gives us a better idea of what it will look like on Google’s upcoming “laptop.” Recall that we first confirmed Google is not developing this feature only for phones but also for laptops.
An animation in the Google app shows what appears to be a strip of LEDs on the inside of the laptop — possibly under the screen — lit up with Gemini-like colors. Here it is technically A first look at Google’s new laptop, but the aspect ratios here seem a bit low. Either way, it’s probably a relatively generic form of laptop used, not reflective of the actual hardware.
Dylan contributed to this article.
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