Pixel 11 Pro's HiLight Feature: A Gimmick or Missed Potential?

Camera, battery, and charging: all the Pixel 11 models received incremental upgrades in these three areas that really matter in a smartphone for most users. However, the Pro variants – the Pixel 11 Pro, the Pixel 11 Pro XL, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold – come with a new hardware capability called HiLight. Google heavily advertised this Feature at its Made by Google event, but I, Nancy Jones, believe that it is nothing more than a gimmick. Interestingly, most of our readers also believe the same.

What's the Issue with HiLight?

Look, I'm not totally against the HiLight capability in the Pixel 11 Pro phones. In fact, I believe it's an upgraded version of the notification LED, which was one of my favorite features on some old Android smartphones, like the Galaxy S8 and Nexus 5. The thing I don't like about HiLight is that its functionality is very limited at the moment.

In case you are not aware, it can currently be used only for two purposes: to inform you when you are receiving a call from one of your favorite contacts and to change patterns to let you visually know that Gemini is actively listening and responding to your commands. Worst of all, it only becomes active when you place your phone face down.

Reader Feedback Echoes Concerns

I recently covered a Pixel story in which I included a poll asking you guys to share your thoughts about the HiLight Feature in the latest Pixel phones. The poll has received 347 votes at the time of writing, with almost 62% of voters saying that this new capability is a useless gimmick. 31% of voters believe that it is half-baked, and only around 7% of votes were received by the option saying that the capability is really fascinating.

Google Could Learn From Third-Party Developers

As I mentioned above, the problem I have with this new hardware capability is that it performs only two functions. However, a popular Indian tech creator, Dhananjay Tech, developed an app called HiLight Studio, which uses HiLight to its fullest. It reportedly allows you to use this feature with almost all the third-party applications installed on your phone. For instance, you can configure HiLight to glow green when you receive a notification from WhatsApp. In short, it would have been really cool if the Pixel offered this level of customization out of the box.