For the past few years, Google has included an unusual feature on its most expensive Pro-series Pixel phones: a sensor that could detect the temperature of nearby surfaces.
Widely assumed to have been a holdover from the pandemic days when we were regularly checking ourselves for signs of fever, the sensor didn’t actually work for human body temperature when it first launched. It still can’t be safely used in a cooking context. If it ever rose beyond the point of novelty for any Pixel users, I’m yet to hear from them.
With today’s announcement of the Pixel 11 Pro, the experiment is over. Google has repurposed the same area of the camera bump for a new feature called HiLight, a colorful LED that responds to Gemini interactions and signals incoming calls. If nothing else, it’s a lot more visible than the temperature sensor.
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A strip of lights
Rumors had suggested that Google might be preparing a strip of colored lights to surround the camera bump, similar to the glowing bar on the upcoming Googlebook laptops, but instead HiLight is more of a rethinking of the LEDs traditionally used for the camera flash. When the Pixel 11 Pro is lying face-down, the lights can glow in different colors and patterns to communicate information without the screen visible.
That’s not altogether a new idea, of course. Before always-on displays became commonplace and bezels became razor-thin, many Android phones would blink tiny lights to alert you about unread messages, missed calls or charging status. Most devices let you customize colors on a per-app basis.
HiLight is more sophisticated and considerably more prominent, but the basic idea isn’t so different. At launch it’s arguably less flexible, though, since it isn’t configurable across apps and only has a couple of supported use cases.
The first involves calls from favorite people. You can assign custom colors to individuals, and when one of them calls while your phone is face-down, HiLight will glow accordingly. The feature works alongside Pixel’s existing “Flip to Shhh” functionality and supports calls through both Google’s Phone app and WhatsApp, so the same contact can trigger the same color regardless of which service they use. It doesn’t yet support other messaging apps, though.
The second use case feels a little more Googley. HiLight acts as a visual status indicator for Gemini, pulsing to show when the assistant is listening, thinking and responding. The idea is that you can talk to Gemini without looking at the screen while still getting a degree of visual reassurance that the phone heard your query and is working on it.
In other words, a face-down Pixel 11 Pro should serve as a reasonable facsimile of the new Google Home Speaker, which puts on a similar light show during Gemini interactions. It probably helps that Google significantly improved speaker quality on the Pixel 10 Pro last year, making it one of the best-sounding Android phones.
The Gemini factor
Along with some solid-sounding camera improvements, Google’s pitch for this Pixel generation is heavily centered on what it calls Gemini Intelligence, which uses a combination of processing on the Tensor G6 chip and cloud-based models to understand context across apps and proactively help with tasks. Examples include surfacing calendar availability when someone asks if you’re free and finding relevant information from other apps without making you dig through them yourself.
In the US at launch, Gemini Intelligence can take on routine tasks such as ordering groceries, booking a ride or reordering something you regularly buy. Gemini can also call businesses on your behalf, with the Pixel showing you a live transcript and allowing you to intervene.
I don’t think I’d want to order groceries without seeing my shopping list on a screen. But Google is pushing Gemini as a system that you should feel confident using in a variety of situations. With that in mind, sticking a dedicated Gemini indicator onto the hardware makes a degree of sense. If the assistant is to become something you interact with even when you aren’t actively operating your phone, as well as a tool that spends time completing tasks in the background, some kind of ambient feedback could be useful.
Now, in an age of always-on displays, this is arguably something that could be achieved just as well with the phone facing up. But there’s also something to be said for making the deliberate choice not to interact with your phone screen.
And really, it can’t be said that Google is giving much up to get HiLight on the Pixel. The temperature sensor occupied permanent space on the hardware for a feature whose usefulness was highly dubious, and even then most people probably never thought to use it. HiLight, by comparison, is colorful, animated, and integrated into one of the most visually distinctive parts of the Pixel 11 Pro.
It may prove to be little more than a 2026 take on the old Android notification LED, now powered by Gemini. But if we must have a mysterious circle in our Pixel Pro camera bumps, this one probably has a stronger reason to exist than the temperature sensor.
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