Physical changes are also welcome, so things like skins, cases, screen protections etc… are fine to discuss.

For me, in this order:

  • Wi-Fi calling: it was very surprising that this was not on by default, and enabling it helped a bit with the battery life on my Pixel 7a;
  • Try custom launchers: I was happy with the phone but the very first annoying thing is the damn Google search bar and how there was no way to just hide it like any other widget. So I ended up installing KISS Launcher (it’s FOSS and still maintained);
  • Bite the bullet and install GrapheneOS: you get more security, sandboxed Play Services, a more fine-grained permissions system and you can still install the default Pixel apps from the Play Store while cutting off their internet access, and most importantly you get rid of the Google bar (also enabled Wi-Fi calling as previously done).
  • falkerie71English
    3•4 months ago

    Install GCam, few reasons:

    1. The new update that requires you to go into a menu to change exposure and white balance instead of just tapping on the viewfinder to show the two sliders infuriates me to no end.
    2. Custom video bitrate. Not every video I take needs to be full quality, and even then, full quality video on my Pixels so far are not worth it. Couple hundred megabytes just for 1 min of footage that doesn’t even look that good? Nah.
    3. Photosphere >>>>> panorama. I don’t understand why they decided to kill it off entirely.