New Google Pixel Phones models could take a design cue from Nothing

Google is working on a new hardware-based lighting fixture called Pixel Glow, judging by code spotted within the latest Android 17 beta, and it could be here as soon as the next Pixel phones.

In its latest APK Insight piece, 9to5Google found that Google is working on a Pixel branded laptop that’ll have a lighting feature called Pixel Glow. It sounds a lot like the Glyph interface on the Nothing Phone series, which offers different light indicators to represent different notifications on the phone.

While the report mentions a Pixel laptop, it would seem a no brainer that Google would add this feature across its range of Pixel devices. So what is Pixel Glow?

Well, according to the APK teardown, it’s based on ensuring you “stay in the moment without losing touch.” Pixel Glow “uses subtle light and colour on the back of your device to inform you of important activity when it’s face down.” Again, this isn’t necessarily something you’d need on a laptop, so it seems more like a Pixel Phone feature, which 9to5Google also states in its reporting.

The report also says that the Pixel Glow will be active when users are interacting with Google Gemini, enabling users to have “hands free interactions using visual feedback.” For more conventional use-cases, it will offer subtle lighting when one of your favourite contacts calls.

Whether this will launch with this year’s Pixel models remains to be seen, but it does seem like a potentially neat addition for smartphone users who want to reduce their screen time. We may learn more when Google officially documents Android 17 at Google I/O later this spring.