Hi guys, it's MTG here, and today I'm going to be going over some tips and tricks for
your Google Pixel 2 and Google Pixel 2 XL, and with those I'll be showing you some cool
new features that Android Oreo brings to the table.
Right now, very few phones are running Android Oreo, but once those software updates come,
you could expect to see some of these features on a wider range of devices.
I hope some of these help you out.
Let's get right into it.
The Pixel has a hidden dark theme that isn't anywhere in the settings.
It makes the pull down notification shade black as opposed to its usual white.
To activate this feature, simply change your background to something dark.
Once you do this, your notification shade will automatically change and become black.
If you hate it when people use your phone when you're just trying to show them one thing,
the pixel 2's have this feature where you'll be able to pin an app to the screen.
To turn this on, go into settings, then scroll to security and location.
From here, scroll to the bottom and toggle on screen pinning.
Now when you're in an app that you want to pin, click the menu icon on the bottom and
then click the pin icon.
Once the screen is pinned, the user will not be able to do anything.
To get out of this mode, hold the menu and back buttons at the same time.
The phone will then require you to enter your pin or fingerprint once again.
Especially with the Pixel 2 XL, the notification shade could be tricky to pull down.
But you can help this problem by turning on the fingerprint sensor gesture.
To turn this on, go into settings, system, languages, input & gestures, and then click
advanced.
From here, you will be able to turn on "Swipe fingerprint for notifications".
Now when you swipe down once, you'll see any notifications as well as your first 6 quick
toggles, and if you swipe down again, all of your quick toggles will be presented.
The ambient display is the screen that shows the time and any notifications you may have
on your phone.
You'll be able to change various settings of the ambient display by going to settings,
display, advanced, then ambient display.
From here, you will be able to toggle on and off whether or not you want the ambient display
to always be on.
If you toggle this off, you'll be able to turn on and off whether or not you want the
ambient display to be activated when you lift the phone.
Whether the ambient display is always on or not, you will also be able to double-tap to
activate the screen.
The next few tips involve the camera.
To quickly launch the camera, you can double-tap the power button.
Then once the camera is open, you can switch between camera modes by twisting the phone
twice.
Both of these features, if not on for you already, can be turned on by going into settings,
system, Languages, input & gestures, then advanced.
These features are called Jump to camera, and flip camera respectively.
The camera has two other cool features on by default that I want to talk about.
The first is double tapping to 2x zoom.
There is no telephoto lens, but this feature will instantly 2x digitally zoom.
The next feature locks the focus and exposure.
When you tap the screen to focus on something, you can click the lock icon that appears on
the right, and now your focus and exposure will both be locked.
With Android Oreo, Google finally implemented a display toggle that will filter out blue
light to help with sleep.
In Oreo, this is called Night Light.
You will be able to turn this on by going into your quick toggles and clicking "Night
Light."
You'll be able to access more settings by holding down on the toggle.
From here you will be able to schedule a custom time for it to activate, or have your phone
turn it on when the sun sets.
When it's on, you'll be able to set the intensity of the amber tint as well.
The do not disturb function got some added functionality.
You can turn it on and off from the quick toggles as usual.
But also from the quick toggles, you can click the menu underneath and you'll be able to
choose whether your phone will be completely silent, let alarms make sound, or alarms and
other exceptions you can set under the priority only button.
If you click the more settings button, you'll be able to choose what the priority mode allows,
block visual disturbances such as notifications from popping up on the screen, and you'll
be able to make custom rules based on the time of week or the thing you're doing.
A cool new feature with Android Oreo is your ability to perform certain application actions
directly from the app icons themselves.
What I mean by this is that you'll be able to hold down the messaging icon and create
a new conversation, hold down the phone icon and make a new contact, and a lot more quick
actions on just about every app that comes preinstalled by Google, and will eventually
spread to more apps as updates take this feature into account.
Android has refined their implementation of screen splitting in Oreo.
Now to activate screen-splitting, simply go into your recent apps, and drag the app to
the top.
Then choose the app you'd like to put on the bottom screen.
You'll be able to easily resize the apps, and to exit screen-splitting mode, just hold
down the multitasking button.
With the Pixel 2's, you'll be able to have it automatically listen for songs playing
around you.
Google assures this feature is local on the device, meaning that it does not require an
internet connection to operate.
To turn this on, go into settings, sound, advanced, and toggle on Now Playing.
The last little hidden feature involves watching videos in the YouTube app.
You can fill up the whole screen by simply pinching to zoom.
And you can make the video its normal aspect ratio by just pinching back in.
Hopefully, you found some of those tips and tricks useful.I'm getting my iPhone X in later
this week so stay tuned for that.
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