A third-party developer has released an app that expands the capabilities of the Pixel 11 Pro’s HiLight notification LED, a feature that currently offers limited functionality out of the box. The stock HiLight array on the Pixel 11 Pro can only activate under two conditions: when the phone is face down during Gemini interactions, or when a call arrives from a favorite contact. Additionally, the official feature supports only five glow colors. Developer Dhananjay_Tech, posting on X, created the app, called HiLight Studio, to address these limitations.
HiLight Studio grants users granular control over the LED array, going far beyond Google’s default settings. For example, the app can trigger a rainbow pulse when a Slack notification contains a specific word, or display a wave of green light for incoming texts. Users can also adjust timing per cycle, brightness, intensity, and saturation. The app provides eight preset colors or a full color slider for selection, and it supports importing and exporting presets for sharing with others.
The app is not yet available through the Google Play Store. Interested users must download it from GitHub and sideload a couple of applications to get it working. The setup process requires unlocking developer settings and adjusting a few phone-level options, making it more involved than a standard app installation. For users comfortable with that process, the developer indicates the added functionality is worth the effort.
The HiLight feature’s limited launch state has been a point of criticism for the Pixel 11 Pro, given that notification LEDs were once a popular element on older Android devices. The swift appearance of HiLight Studio reflects a pattern of developers stepping in to expand features that manufacturers ship in a restricted form. The app essentially turns the hardware into a more flexible notification tool for a US market that has seen a resurgence of interest in such indicators. Users in the US who sideload the app can now tailor the LED behavior to their specific app usage and preferences.
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