A Look at google (stupidly) showed us how cool HiLight could have been
The Pixel 11 series is now official, with its new HiLight feature. Sadly, the rumours about its limited functionality were true, but even worse is that Google’s set of teasers in the run-up to the Made by Google event hinted at something much better.
Way back when HiLight was first spotted (the feature was known as Pixel Glow at the time), we imagined how Google might implement it. My thinking, along with many other tech sites, was that the feature would either be a light-up ‘G’ logo on the back or a ring light around the camera bar.
The latter was my bet (well, my hope – and I even got Gemini to show what it might look like), but as we knew even before launch day via leaked official images, it’s instead hidden within the camera flash. Plus, it replaced a genuinely useful feature – the temperature sensor, now gone for good.
HiLight is limited to the Pro models and, at launch, at least, it can barely do anything. It simply glows blue when you’re interacting with Gemini and can light up different colours when your favourite contacts call you.
Google said in a press briefing that contact notifications are coming later in the year, but anything more, primarily third-party access, is very much a case of if and not when.
It’s a real shame, especially when you look at what the likes of Nothing and Xiaomi have done with screens and lights on the back of phones.
As mentioned earlier, the high-contrast lighting effect and reflections in many of Google’s teasers for the Pixel 11 phones showed how cool HiLight could have been if it was a ring light around the edge of the camera module (as you can see in the images and video below).
This only makes it worse, as we can see how the light might have swished around the edge, which I think would not only have looked far more spectacular but opened more dynamic possibilities for its functionality.
The light could have circled in different directions, speeds and combinations of sections and pulses for different alerts and functions. Google could have even opened it up so users could create their own light responses.
As a side note, it also would have made Google’s launch event and teasers lining up with the solar eclipse make a lot more sense.
Maybe Google will see this and make it right on the Pixel 12. I can wish, right?
