Google’s newest phones come with updated software, and there are a lot of changes this year. Android 12 introduces a slew of new features behind the hood, which means there will be plenty of new things to uncover. While there are many significant changes to get used to, there are also some lesser-known talents and features that we’ve found to be really helpful on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Watch the video below for a visual guide to those features, or read on for a written tutorial. We compare 1,000s of prices from 1,000s of merchants to get you the best new deal available. Pocket-lint may be compensated for these offers. More information is available here.
For years, the default way to take a screenshot on Android has been to press two buttons together. It can be a tad fiddly, depending on the position and layout of the buttons. But you can enable a gesture to take a screenshot just by tapping the back of your phone. Open Settings > System and now select ‘Gestures’. Right at the top you’ll see ‘Quick Tap’. Select this option and toggle on the feature on the next screen. By default its action is set to screenshot, so now when you tap twice on the back of the phone it’ll snap a screenshot. If you’d rather have a different function you can do, whether it be pausing or playing music, launching Google Assistant or showing notifications.
The fingerprint sensor on the Pixel 6 isn’t amazing, so if you want to make it a bit more reliable, there’s a handy trick from back in the days when iPhone’s TouchID sensors weren’t too hot either: simply register the same finger or thumb multiple times. Once you’ve set up your first fingerprint scan go to Settings > Security > Fingerprint unlock. Now type in your PIN to get to the settings. Tap ‘Add fingerprint’ and scan that same finger or thumb again. In our testing we found this made the scanner a lot less likely to fail.
If you find it’s too easy to activate the double-tap feature, you can toggle on the option at the bottom of the screen that requires stronger taps in order for it to launch your chosen feature. Pixel 6 and 6 Pro have big screens, and so you might find some stuff hard to reach. That’s why Android 12 now has a one-handed mode that brings stuff down from the top of the screen. Head to Settings > System > Gestures and choose ‘One-handed mode’. Now toggle it on. Once active, when you swipe down at the bottom of the screen, it’ll bring the user interface lower down, allowing you to get to the stuff at the top with your thumb.
By default, the Pixel’s home screen features something called ‘At a Glance’ at the top. Most of the time it shows weather conditions, but it also automatically shows important calendar events and travel plans coming up from your Gmail account. If you want to switch it off, just long press the ‘At a glance’ widget and tap ‘Customise’. Now tap ‘At a glance’ in the list, and then ‘Turn off’. You can also enable or disable specific features from showing up in there.
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