5 cool new features coming with the Google Pixel 11

Google’s Pixel 11 series arrived with the kind of technical changes you’d expect from an annual refresh. The device offers Google’s new Tensor G6 chip, larger camera sensors, and brighter displays. The Pixel 11 lineup consists of four phones. The Pixel 11 starts at $899, the Pixel 11 Pro at $1,099, the Pixel 11 Pro XL at $1,299, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold at $1,899 – each $100 more than the equivalent Pixel 10 model started last year. All four go on sale on August 20, launching with Android 17 and coming with seven years of OS, security, and Pixel Drop updates.

Beyond the numbers, you’ll discover a set of more interesting additions. We’ve reviewed all the new additions and picked out the coolest new features, including a piece of hardware that Android fans have been asking Google to bring back for nearly a decade. Some of the features below are exclusive to the Pro models, others are software that will likely eventually make its way to other Android phones, and a few are worth the upgrade on their own.

The notification light returns, but with a few changes. Dubbed HiLight, rather than an LED, it features a set of ambient LEDs built around the camera flash on the back of the phone, which glow in color when the device is face down. You can assign custom colors to favorite contacts, so a glance at the back of the phone tells you if an incoming call is worth returning. Colors remain consistent whether the call is through Phone by Google or WhatsApp. HiLight also pulses in different patterns to indicate when Gemini is listening, thinking and responding. Unfortunately, HiLight doesn’t light up for app or message notifications, although Google says support for message notifications from favorite contacts is coming later.

Notification LEDs were standard on Android phones for years before manufacturers abandoned them in favor of always-on displays, and Google removed the feature from its own phones in 2018 with the Pixel 3. Getting them back in a form that handles AI status and colors on a per-touch basis is a nice return, although the implementation is narrower than enthusiasts remember, as there’s no per-app customization at launch. HiLight is limited to the Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, making it another reason to consider upgrading to one of the best foldable smartphones rather than the base model.

Voice typing on phones has always had the same problem. It can only transcribe what you actually said, not what you meant. First announced at the Android Show ahead of Google I/O 2026, Gboard Rambler can filter out recurring phrases and filler words like “um” and “ah.” It also determines your real intention behind any errors and produces clear text. If you change your mind mid-sentence, it may resolve the contradiction. Tell him to drop what you just said and start again, and he does that too. When Rambler is active, it takes over Gboard’s suggestion strip with a wave animation so you know it’s running.

The reason this matters more than most keyboard features is where it’s located. Rambler is integrated into Gboard, the default keyboard for Pixel phones. That means it works in any app that accepts text input, from Google Messages to email to a browser’s search bar. Dictation on Android has been usable for years without ever being enjoyable, if you ask Pixel users online. But the difference between transcription and comprehension is the type of change people will notice.

Magic Capture is the new flagship feature of Google’s camera. It’s designed to handle those times when framing a photo means you might miss it. With the feature enabled, you can press the shutter button once and your Pixel 11 will record a video, take the best frames from it, and give you the still photos with auto crop and blur removal applied, along with the original video. Google suggests this could be a particularly useful feature for parents, pet owners, and anyone who has spent a birthday party looking through a viewfinder instead of at the party. It’s available across the entire Pixel 11 series rather than being reserved for the Pro models.

Google is not the first to introduce such a feature. Samsung offered a feature called Single Take on the Galaxy S20 in 2020, which captured up to 14 photos and videos in bursts of up to 10 seconds and let its AI choose the winners. What’s changed since then is the AI ​​processing behind selecting the best images, and facial blur removal in particular seems to have come a long way.

It’s a great year for Pixel cameras, as the Pixel 11 Pro will also improve the long-standing Night Sight feature, capturing low-light photos up to 4.5 times faster than before and requiring less light, while maintaining the same quality. Pixel phones already rank well in our list of popular smartphone cameras, and these features widen the gap even further.

Creator Suite is a new tab in Video Settings that offers a collection of tools for people who film themselves for a living. Adding the title is an on-screen teleprompter that scrolls through your script as you speak, sitting above the camera feed so your gaze pretty much stays on the selfie camera lens. Google also offers an improved version of Speech Enhancement that lets you cut replays, trim and rearrange clips in the Camera app, and automatically save footage to a designated project album so a shot doesn’t scatter across your camera roll.

MrWhoseTheBoss’ handy phone coverage also describes an audio visualizer that alerts you when you speak too loudly. Additionally, Creator Suite includes a selection of on-screen social media layouts that show which parts of the frame will be covered by interface elements once a video is uploaded to a platform like Instagram. This last point will be important for creators, as video teams regularly use safe zone guides to prevent cropping of captions and faces. Incorporating these guides into the filming process rather than editing is a practical consideration.

Extreme Charging Mode is new to the Pixel 11 to charge the device faster, but it doesn’t increase the power of the device. Instead, this feature stops background tasks and allows the phone to heat up more than it normally would while charging, allowing more of the available power to reach the battery before thermal management starts to throttle things. The power caps remain the same as the Pixel 10 series: 30 W on the Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro, and 45 W on the Pixel 11 Pro XL. The increase in charging speed comes from spending more time at the top of this range rather than actually increasing it.

Google restricts the mode to devices with less than 50% charge, but it continues to work until your device reaches 100% once activated. It supports wired and wireless charging, and you can enable it in Settings or via a Quick Settings tile. As a reminder, the Pixel 10 reached 55% in about 30 minutes on a 30W charger. All four Pixel 11 phones also support 25W Qi2 thanks to built-in Pixelsnap magnets, making it worth pairing with one of the best wireless chargers you can buy. It is currently unclear whether this specific feature will affect the longevity of your battery health. Heat can be a major factor in battery degradation, so this feature could speed it up, and it’s not yet clear whether Google has included any safeguards to prevent this.