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When Google announced the Pixel 11 series last week, it showed off a new “upgrade” for its Pro devices—including the Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. “HiLight” is a small light circle that rests on the camera bar of these Pro Pixels, and is designed to passively clue users into alerts while their phones are face down. If HiLight glows red, perhaps you have an incoming call from your friend; if it glows blue, perhaps Gemini is processing your request. The color that glows is up to you, but the core idea is the same: If HiLight is glowing, it’s because someone is calling you, or Gemini is working.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing else HiLight can do out of the box, which seems like a big missed opportunity for a brand-new hardware feature. Google wants customers to spend more for a Pro device, only to give them two things to do with this Pixel 11 Pro exclusive. And while there’s certainly some utility in assigning contacts different colors, to silently know who’s calling without needing to pick up your Pixel, there are so many other possibilities for HiLight that the current iteration feels way underbaked.
‘HiLight Studio’ makes the Pixel 11 Pro’s LED useful
Enter: HiLight Studio, a new app from developer DhananjayBhosale. DhanajayBhosale’s announcement appeared on my X feed, and it immediately caught my attention. The developer designed the app to take full advantage of Google’s new hardware, even if Google isn’t taking advantage itself. With HiLight Studio, you can assign colors and effects for notifications from any app on your Pixel, not just contacts. Chrome alerts can be blue, WhatsApp alerts can be green, and so on. In addition, you can effectively choose any shade of any color that Android allows, down to saturation and intensity levels.
There are also five lighting effects you can choose from: “Rainbow,” “Comet,” “Pulse,” “Breathe,” and “Wave,” plus “Random” if you want to be surprised. These effects go beyond choosing a solid color: An alert could light up HiLight rainbow, or pulse in red. You can choose how long the colors and effects stay on for after each notification, and when to prevent HiLight from activating (e.g. while the screen is off, during Do Not Disturb, or when the battery hits a percentage you designate). You can save your presets and export them to other apps, and you can access your settings through a Quick Settings tile.
To be clear, this is not an app you can download from the Play Store. Instead, you need to install the APK from GitHub, which in turn needs shell-level access to your Pixel’s lights service. That involves either setting up through Shizuku or ADB. DhanajayBhosale has instructions for each method, but keep in mind that this is a more technical approach than a simple app download. Luckily, there’s no need to root your Pixel for this to work.
