On the whole, it seems as though the Pixel 11 range will be pretty similar to the Pixel 10 phones. However, Pixel Glow is set to be a brand-new feature, and I’m wondering what it will look like.
There are only basic details of the feature, which has been discovered in the Android 17 beta code, suggesting it may debut on the Pixel 11 phones as a hidden design element. It’s described as “subtle light and color on the back of your device to inform you of important activity when it’s face down”.
It sounds similar to Nothing’s Glyph lighting on the back of various phones, giving you notifications of a sort without you needing to check the phone’s display. However, recently released CAD-based renders of the Pixel 11 range don’t give anything away.
I think that means they’re hidden, either in the tweaked camera bar or possibly in the ‘G’ logo on the back, similar to the way that the Apple logo used to light up on MacBook lids.
Curiosity got the better of me and I asked Gemini what the Pixel Glow lights on the back of a Pixel 11 might look like, as I did a while back for a hypothetical Pixel Ring.
The very first image is the one you see at the top of the article, which is a nice artistic idea of Pixel Glow (the white model showing a more likely version, I think) but it’s not exactly what I had in mind.
With some further prompts, I got Gemini to show the lights around the camera bar in Google’s trademark set of four colours (you’ll have to ignore the random light emitted from the bottom of the phone).
Chris Martin / Foundry
The code mentions subtle light and colour, so this could be how Google implements it, in my opinion. The code suggests you’ll be able to customise Pixel Glow for your favourite contacts, for example, so perhaps you could choose a separate colour for your four most important friends or family members.
Less likely, but possible, is the light-up logo option, seen here with the ‘G’ split into four sections, one for each colour. It would work in the same way in my mock-up, but it doesn’t look quite as cool as the camera bar option.
Chris Martin / Foundry
If it does end up launching on the Pixel 11 and not on a future model, we shouldn’t have too long to wait. Google should announce the phones in August and who knows, we might get a sneak peek at them or Pixel Glow at this month’s Google I/O developer conference.