Stephen Headrick / Android Authority
I was excited to try one of Google’s latest pixel drop heading features. Unfortunately, here is the key word. One of the biggest features shown in all marketing for this update is Pixel VIPs, a feature that promises to help you stay with people who care more easily. I’ve tested such a relationship management app in the past, and I was very excited about the idea of a lightweight approach that is even more deeply connected to my device. My experience, though, did not remain on that promise.
Do you like Pixel’s new VIP widget?
5 votes
Yes, I use it all the time.
0 %
That’s fine, but it can be improved.
40 %
Tested it, didn’t like it, removed it.
20 %
Wait, is a new VIP widget?!
40 %
Where is the widget?
First, there was confusion around finding the feature. Like a pixel screenshots and a pixel studio, which both arrived last year, VIPS was shown a special app from a new pixel. Well, that’s and not. Technically, it’s a standstone app, but it does not appear as its own icon in the launcher. Instead, this contact app extends a widget and highlights tabs that you can already use. I have always found this tab useful to see the birth anniversary in my contacts. Although the new VIPS widget feels like the perfect extension of this tab, it was not clear where to find it. I might have been anxious to try it and something was lost in the details of the announcement, but I saw others across the web that were so confused.
As far as the widow itself is concerned, okay, it’s … influenced. I like to like this feature, I really do, and some are really useful parts about which we will talk about in a moment, but if I’m going to put a widget on my home screen, I want it to be nice. When Google is expanding a new feature in all its marketing, I expect it to be the best design. But let’s be real: Vijit on pixels needs some work.
Google wants better widgets, then releases it
According to Google, “Tire 1 widgets that fill the crop content properly, fill the sequence limits, properly have headers and touch goals, and use the colors and vice versa.”
Just a few months ago, the widget’s addiction on Google Android. Was ready for secondary. In March, it introduced the quality levels of the widget, apparently recognizing the need for improvement in the widget on this platform. So when I saw a vegetarian included in a new update announcement, I was anxious to try to see if it met this new high bar.
After updating my phone with my enthusiasm, I met the truth. The first problem that sticks to me is the design of the VIPS widget. This is probably the most disappointing part of everyone. After Google’s newly announced content 3, in addition to recent announcements about the quality of the widget, I hoped to be a thought -provoking vegetable. Instead, I met another widget that I was reluctant to place on my second or third screen, leaving on your home screen.
I can think of many ways to improve the VIP widget as it stands. For example, recruiting comes to mind. You can set the widget for many different sizes, but no one offers a large place. If you choose a small widget size, everything feels squeezed together, but if you choose a huge widget, there is such an open space that it feels wasted. With 3 express thoughts, the design is considered to be bold and forward thinking, but it feels like a widget mostly on Android, most of which look and feel the archeology.
Just for fun – and I’m not a professional designer in any way – I fired Figma and tried my hand to make fun of my vision for a pixel VIPS video. In a small widget, for example, why not exclude names and show big pictures of your VIPs with big tap goals? I am going out on an organ and will guess that you are listed under someone’s face with someone’s face listed if you think of them as VIP here. Or in a large widget, why don’t you make VIP photos a huge, almost a photo frame to highlight your most important people? I am sure Google’s professional designers can perform better than my joke, but you have this point.
Contemporary Pixel VIPs VIPs VIPs VIPs Veeps Veeps Veeps Vigilats 3 expression indicators, such as new shapes for profile picture, as well as large, bold colorful text.You can also see a VIP picture when you contact them.You can determine what form is used as a quick visual indicator to get your VIP faster for each VIP.The material color theme of your device can be applied to the widget.
Naked bonus note in AI Edge (or Google Cape Edge!)
Design one side, there is still some basic functionality that feels half full – once again, not well for the heading feature! For example, take the note section. Each VIP is dedicated to a part of their profile for small notes that can help you remember things about the recent conversation or what big events you have mentioned. This is a manual process, of course, as you have to enter the note yourself. There are no AI suggestions on the basis of your conversation (yet?), But I still think about it. I recently used it after a phone call with my brother. He told me that when he was planning to close his house, and I wanted to remember that date so I could check this time.
This note section is a very easy and useful place to store these small pieces of information, but it does not feel over. The notes are the most initial form of notes that I have seen in a modern app. Why can’t I be reminded for notes? If I want to review it later, why don’t I keep this note, but not on my face? You can only delete a note. Why can’t I find or tag these notes? There are no organizational tools. Without them, you may be better than using Google Cape or Task to store this type of information.
A good start, but still not my home screen worth
There is a lot to love with Pixel VIPs, but it has a lot of potential, which I hope will be involved in the upcoming update. I like that you get a remarkable reminder for the upcoming anniversary of the VIP, which has a colorful banner in the cupcake emoji and full screen profile on the widget. I enjoy watching my recent conversations with my favorite contacts, though I hope they will include other sources of messaging in the future. Currently, only Google Phones, Google Messages, and WhatsApp are being displayed. If you enter a VIP address or you already distribute space in the Find Hub, their current location is shown in their VIP profile, as well as the weather and time in their city. Note, as I have written above, has the ability to improve with local AI analysis of integration with joint messages, customs reminders, and other Google note -taking apps.
Stephen Headrick / Android Authority
Pixel VIPs have so much ability to become a useful widget, but I wish it was better.
The last part of the app is “things to do together”. You want to do with VIP, you can enter your own preferences for these activities, and the app will start recommending things. So far, Mine has just recommended movies and TV shows, and it doesn’t feel much custom. I am hoping that this feature will be developed in a more personal recommendation system in the future, perhaps using an on -device analysis of your interactions, or based on a combined Google Maps list or something like that. I think there are ways to prepare these suggestions with the first approach to privacy, and I would love to see Google working more here. For now, it’s not very useful to me at all, but since it is at the bottom of the app, it is not too much on the way.
Pixel VIPs is the only example of a widget that needs to work. As a person who lives in many states away from many family members and friends, I am very excited to help her stay in touch with VIPs in my life, but both Google and third -party developers equally emphasize the wedge more than they need to see more android users.
