Physical changes are also welcome, so things like skins, cases, screen protections etc... are fine to discuss.

For me, in this order:

• Wi-Fi calling: it was very surprising that this was not on by default, and enabling it helped a bit with the battery life on my Pixel 7a;
• Try custom launchers: I was happy with the phone but the very first annoying thing is the damn Google search bar and how there was no way to just hide it like any other widget. So I ended up installing KISS Launcher (it's FOSS and still maintained);
• Bite the bullet and install GrapheneOS: you get more security, sandboxed Play Services, a more fine-grained permissions system and you can still install the default Pixel apps from the Play Store while cutting off their internet access, and most importantly you get rid of the Google bar (also enabled Wi-Fi calling as previously done).

The Pixel phone cameras and their AI photo enhancements using Google's Tensor chip are among the things where Pixel phones shine and which make their owners fall in love with them. In case you didn't see it already, please take a look at all of the beautiful shots by the members in our Pixel photography megathread and feel free to contribute your own! 😁

Whether you're a photography geek or just starting out, this thread aims to be a place to share tips and tricks to make the most out of your Pixel phone's camera and its AI magic to capture stunning shots.

Please feel free to share your favorite tricks regarding but not limited to:

• Accessories: what are your must-have accessories that level up your photography experience?

• Composition techniques: rule of thirds, golden ratio... do you use any of these techniques?

• Digital zoom: do you ever use it?

• Google Camera settings: what are your go-to settings in the Google Camera app for different scenarios? Or do you prefer using another app?

• Gripping: how do you like to hold your device when shooting photos and videos?

• Lenses: which lenses do you use the most? Do you find yourself using macro and wide angle more, or telephoto (maybe even for close ups)?

• Lighting: how do you deal with different lighting conditions to get the perfect shot?

• Portrait shots: how do you get that perfect bokeh effect in your portrait shots?

• Post-processing: which Google Camera filters do you use the most? Do you use any other Android apps for additional post-processing or do you post-process on PC?

Model-specific tips are of course also welcome. Don't forget to state what phone model you have when posting!

Can't wait to see what photography hacks you've got up your sleeves! 📸✨

-- with love by AlmightySnoo & hackitfast

(photo featuring the Google Camera app by Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian)

We'll keep it in a single sticky thread for now and see how it goes. Please don't forget to indicate which model you used to take the photo! 😁

EDIT: Won't be pushing Pixelfed anymore. As someone in the comments already said, it reduces the quality of your photos. And Lemmy.world isn't a small instance anymore and should handle the photos so we'll ignore the recommendation below, unless of course you don't mind the lossy compression that's being applied :-)

If you want a tiny bit of lossless compression before posting your photos, if you're on Linux you could feed them to jpegoptim.

The following is of course not necessary, but if it's not too complicated for you it might be preferable to host your photos on a Pixelfed instance if they are too large to help lessen the burden on the lemmy.world instance!

Basically, once you upload your image on a Pixelfed instance, you can embed your image here by right-clicking (or long tap if on your phone) on the Pixelfed pic, choosing "copy image link" (or opening it in a new tab and copying the URL if your mobile browser doesn't show this), and then you paste the URL here inside an image tag like this:

![](PASTE_URL_HERE)

Discussions and suggestions about how the community is run, the moderation, the rules etc... go here!

My Pro 7 is making the sad-trombone "almost dead" sound quite a lot in the past few weeks, and the first time I heard it, I didn't know what it was. Because, although I've had the phone for 18 months, I'd never heard that sound before.

This article doesn't have much authoritative information, it's mostly recapping Reddit posts, I guess. But: Is anyone else here having the same issue?

...numerous reports point to an undiagnosed issue causing batteries in Pixel phones, including the new Pixel 10 series, to drain much faster than they did previously.

...one user claims it may be because of a GPS-related bug preventing the CPU from entering into a “suspended” state — also known as Doze specifically in Android’s context — when not being used. The user points out, “the Exynos baseband/GNSS module is caught in a persistent polling loop, causing a hardware interrupt storm even when the device is completely isolated in Airplane Mode with all radios manually toggled off.” This, in turn, keeps the CPU up and running, resulting in the drain.

When you go to select a picture to save it now only offers a copy option. So now you have to take a screenshot and crop it manually.

The select screen is fundamentally broken.

The flashlight button was a simple on/off from the swipe down. Now it's got a sub screen. Done doesn't mean "done using flashlight" it means "done using this sub screen". It's a whole extra thing that never needed to exist.

Let's just roll back to the way it was. Because this is horrible. Decreased functionality or unnecessary extra steps.

My phone started malfunctioning the other day, where the screen suddenly displays "snow"/white noise instead of a proper image. Sometimes it seems to fix itself for a while, but then does it again, which makes me think it might be software rather than hardware.

While researching the problem, I ran across this article showing the same issue on Pixel 10s, and concurring with my guess that it might be a software thing.

(My phone screen looks just like that, except tinted blue instead of pink.)

But mine is a different model, running non-stock firmware. Is this also a known issue on Pixel 7s and/or phones running GrapheneOS, or is it specific to the Pixel 10 and stock firmware? Has progress been made on diagnosing or fixing it since last September when the article was written?

My trusty Pixel 6a finally gave up the ghost this morning (RIP sweet prince, dropped it face down on concrete 😭). I need a replacement ASAP.

Saw the 10a just got announced, so I watched a review... is it just me or is this literally the exact same phone as the 9a?

Same Tensor G4 chip, same cameras, same battery, and STILL 128GB base storage in 2026 (bruh). Looks like the only real changes are a flat camera back, slightly faster charging, and satellite SOS that I’ll literally never use. No magnetic charging either, which feels like a massive L.

Google is hyping up all the software features, but honestly, it feels like they’re just phoning it in this year to get a new box on the shelf.

Do I just grab a 9a on clearance and save my money, what do you guys think?

Hello all,

My 4 year old Pixel 7 pro died suddenly yesterday while it was charging. It had about 50% battery and it died. I cannot turn it on anymore, i kept it charging with another slower charger but nothing happened. The only thing that appears on screen while connected to a charger is a small very faint grey rectangle with a lightning bolt on it. But once i try to keep the power button pressed that disappears and nothing happens.

I accept that the phone is dead but i was wondering if there is any way to recover some data from it. some of the files I had on it (not really the photos which are backed up in the cloud).

Is there a way to power it up externally and access the storage?

Howdy folks,

Pixel 6 Pro was working fine when i went to bed on Monday with no update notifications or anything interesting. Tuesday morning, it was off and wouldn't turn on. I've tried a few things and I'm all out of ideas.

Held down power for 30s to get it to hard reset. It showed a black background and the grayscale G and progress bar for over an hour.

Held down power and volume down to get to the fastboot menu. I can get to Rescue Mode and Recovery Mode. Stupidly, they both show a broken android character and "no command", and you need to hold power and click volume up to get to the actual menus. Why in the world did they add this step, when you've already done the work to get to the fastboot menu? Anyway. Neither menu has options for clearing cache, mounting as a USB MTP device, or enabling ADB debug mode.

After who knows how many times booting into fastboot and playing around, following various XDG, Stackoverflow, and listicle suggestions, now it boots up to black background with the colorful word "Google" and stays there forever. Is that progress? I can't tell.

lsusb doesn't list the phone while it's off, while in fastboot, in recovery, or in rescue. I used the "mount /system" option but that didn't do anything useful. I installed Android Studio, but it doesn't detect the device either. The Google Pixel Repair page doesn't see the dang thing.

The "recovery logs" option doesn't indicate anything that I can see as a reason to fail booting - it looks like only logs of the recovery mode itself.

I finally resorted to the "wipe to factory default" option with a heavy heart.

It booted to a white background and colorful "Google", but never went anywhere beyond.

I let the battery die, and plugged her back in. Now I need to hold the power button for 30s, and see the white screen with colorful Google, and then the broken android character with "no command"! I appear to be in rescue mode.

lsusb on my computer detected it as "18d1:d001 Google Inc. Nexus 4 (fastboot)" , which is fascinating. A "Pixel" device showed up in my file browser for about a minute, but trying to mount it gave an "Unable to open MTP device" error. I installed mtpfs to see if I could mount the device, and the Rescue Mode menu announced that an "ADB update timeout" had occurred. I hadn't triggered one from either end. Hmm. lsusb no longer shows the device. Then the device disappeared from the file manager and from lsusb. sigh

I triggered a reboot from the Rescue Mode menu, and I'm back on the white background with the colorful Google, and no movement. Interestingly, I can see the ghosts of the top status bar. It almost looks like burn-in, but I keep everything on dark mode and the ghost is darker than the background, so I dunno.

So.

Any ideas? I'm thinking I gave it a fair effort, and it's time for a new phone.

TIA,

Clay

How unlucky can someone be to have their 3rd (!!!) @googlepixel 6 corrupted by an upgrade ⤵️
1st - Dec. 2023 - died at update - lost data
2nd - May 2025 - battery expanded - needed to be changed
3rd - Dec. 2023 - died at update - might lose all data

Also, while traveling for Christmas to families in Romania and Greece, where Google doesn't have support / official service! 🫠

I was the strongest advocate for a pixel/android phone, refusing to switch to iPhone, but this was probably the last straw I could handle.

WHY⁉️ I'm looosing it! 😭

I've noticed than when my brightness is all the way down it's barely visible, and not legible, in a completely dark room. All the way UP, and I can see the screen well on cloudy days. On sunny days I need to remember where the icons and buttons are or to shade my phone.

Is it normal for the screen to be so dim? I've had it for three or four years, but I don't remember complaining about the screen initially. Do backlights lose power over time? Is it a power saving feature for old batteries?

I used an app called Twilight for a while that dims the screen and tints everything red for bedtime, but I haven't used it since the equivalent features were released by Google. Is it possible that some old dimming setting is still active even if the app is gone?

Other people's phones seem to get much brighter than mine. Help!

I like pixel phones, I have had them since they were Nexuses. When the 9 came out and I needed to upgrade I chose the pro fold

The bad first: I'm typing this on my pixel 3 because the 9 pro fold is in bubble wrap in a box waiting for a courier to take it back to Google. Worse, this is the second 9 pro fold I have put in a box with an RMA note to go back. Both died the same way, about 6 months old the inner screen broke along the fold line.

The good: they agreed to replace it pretty quickly when I selected to communicate by message, they took over a month though when I requested a call

I've been using OnePlus for years now and I'm considering getting a Pixel phone next since I love their UI and design. I was wondering if someone else here has also made the jump from the OnePlus to the Pixel family and if you can tell me what you like and what you may or may not miss.

Any reply is appreciated!

My mother has a Google Pixel 7, and about six months ago it started getting incredibly hot, and I thought nothing of it, and we've managed to factory reset it, and it worked fine, but now it's doing it again, and after seeing all the issues with the Google Pixel A lineup and catching fire, I'm very concerned, so we are going to replace it.