Pixel 11 Pro’s HiLight LED gets app controls

A Pixel 11 Pro lying face down has a light that can currently glow for only two reasons: its owner is interacting with Gemini, or a favorite contact is calling. Developer Dhananjay Bhosale has built HiLight Studio, an app that connects the phone’s HiLight LED to notifications from any app and gives users control Google’s default setup leaves unused.

The built-in feature is limited to five colors, according to The Verge. HiLight Studio adds custom color and animation settings, including timing per cycle, brightness, intensity and saturation. A Slack notification containing a chosen word could trigger a rainbow pulse; a new text could make the light move in a green wave.

The app can also assign different effects to different services. Heise online cites WhatsApp in green, Slack in red and new Gmail messages in another selected color. Presets can be imported and exported, allowing Pixel 11 Pro users to share configurations. Bhosale publishes the app on GitHub as free, ad-free and fully open source.

So what changes in practice? The LED becomes a glanceable signal for more than calls and Gemini: users could distinguish a work alert from a message without picking up the phone, provided they configure the patterns themselves. That gives a largely dormant piece of phone hardware a practical notification role.

The obstacle is the installation. HiLight Studio must be sideloaded, and extended permissions require the Shizuku app before installation. Google has said HiLight’s functions will expand in the future; Bhosale says he would bring his app to the Play Store if Google does not add similar capabilities in upcoming updates. The Verge and heise online report the app’s features.