One of the better parts of utilizing a Pixel may be the way tasty little spots of Google intelligence get sprinkled all through the entire experience. Those small but significant morsels showcase the value of experiencing Google’s greatest ingredients integrated directly into your phone’s operating-system, without the competing forces or awkwardly conflicting priorities at play.

And Goog almighty, does that produce an environment of difference. The features involved may not continually be probably the most eye-catching or marketing-friendly advantages, but they’re incredibly practical touches that may make your daily life easier in a few pretty powerful ways.

Today, we’re gonna zoom into a particularly possibility-packed section of the Pixel’s software setup, and that is the Android Overview area. The simple-seeming interface for switching between recently used apps is filled with advanced actions on a Pixel phone, as soon as you discover (or possibly just remind yourself) what’s there, you will be saving time and flyin’ around your phone like nobody’s business.

In order a supplement to my popular Pixel Academy e-course – an absolutely free seven-day email adventure that can help you uncover a great deal of next-level Pixel treasures – join me because of this tour of outstanding and out-of-the-way Pixel Overview gems. Check ’em out, try ’em out, and come join the course for a lot more super-practical Pixel awesomeness.

      (Remember that a lot of the possibilities with this page require Android 11 or more to work. Which means if you are still hangin' onto a first-gen Pixel phone, they don't be available for you personally, unfortunately. But don't despair. It is possible to still find all worthwhile goodies in my own Pixel Academy!)     

Pixel superpower No. 1: The quick text copy

 

We’ll start with a straightforward but supremely helpful feature for copying text from practically any place in a snap. You should use it to snag words from something similar to a web page or perhaps a document, sure, nevertheless, you can also utilize it to highlight and copy anything from in a image, a screenshot you’d previously saved, as well as a location of Android that wouldn’t typically enable you to select and copy text – just like a specific screen within the machine settings, for instance.

Whatever the case could be, all you’ve gotta do is start your Pixel’s Overview interface – by swiping up an inch roughly from underneath of the screen and stopping, if you are using Android’s current gesture system , or by tapping the square-shaped button in the bottom of the screen, if you are still keeping the old legacy three-button nav setup – and press and hold your finger onto what you need within the view of one’s lately used app (or any app in your present history).

JR

 

So long as your phone is running Android 11 or more, you should start to see the text involved get selected. And you may then slide your finger around as had a need to expand or refocus the choice. If you wish to select all of the visible text on the screen, you can even utilize the relatively new “Select” command in the bottom of the Pixel Overview interface. Either real way, your text is selected once, all that’s left would be to hit the “Copy” command in the menu that arises and then execute a spritely little jig of celebration.*

At that point, you can head into any other process or app you want – an in-progress email draft, a messaging app, or even a note-taking tool of some kind – and press your finger down in virtually any text editing field to pull up the “Paste” command and send your freshly copied contents wherever they have to be.

      * jig optional but strongly suggested Spritely.     

Pixel superpower No. 2: The speedy text share

 

Along with copying and anywhere pasting text from, the Pixel’s Overview interface lets you share text and send it straight into other apps and processes on your own phone. It’s a straight easier solution to beam the info you will need directly to where you want it, particularly if the final destination is really a new email, note, or message (as sharing will typically place the knowledge in question right into a new item rather than a draft you’re already focusing on).

Performing this feat is fairly much like pulling off our first little bit of Pixel sorcery: Once again, you’ll start the Overview interface and press and hold your finger onto whatever text you intend to copy within the preview of any recently used app. The only real difference is that right time, you’ll select “Share” from the menu that arises, and select whatever app you intend to send the written text to from there.

If everything you require is context, you can even select “Search” rather than “Share,” as well as your Pixel will send the written text right into a new Google Search instance faster than it is possible to say “Aw, shucks, Siri sucks.”

Doesn’t get easier than that.

Pixel superpower No. 3: The language-translating genie

 

Here is a Pixel power you’ll never know existed: In the event that you highlight some text inside your Pixel phone’s Overview interface that’s not in your native tongue, your phone will offer you to translate the written text on the spot for you personally automatically.

See?

JR

 

Fantástico, ¿no?

Pixel superpower No. 4: The smooth text operator

 

This is probably my favorite tucked-away Pixel possibility – ’cause you get in the habit of using it once, it can really be considered a major step- and time-saver. So here it really is: Anytime there is a little bit of text that’s connected with an action on your own phone, it is possible to highlight it in your Pixel’s Overview interface (utilizing the same process we’ve found in our first few superpowers) and look for a specific option for functioning on it in any manner makes probably the most sense.

Let’s consider some concrete examples, shall we?

• • In the event that you highlight a telephone number within Overview – in a website, an email, a good screenshot you captured of something half a year ago and just pulled up in the Photos app – your Pixel phone’s Overview spirit will summon up the choice to call that number with an individual fast tap.

 

 

JR

 

• • Highlighting an address in Overview will provide you with the choice to beam it over straight into a Google Maps navigation – no copying, pasting, or fussing required.

 

• • When you have any ride-sharing apps like Lyft on your own phone, it’s also advisable to see the substitute for send any addresses straight into them for easy and immediate processing. Those types of options are often saved inside a three-dot menu icon that presents up alongside “Copy,” “Share,” and another more standard choices, so make sure to look closely to see if they are available.

 

• • When you decide on a word within the Overview area your Pixel phone thinks you will possibly not know, you’ll see a choice to obtain a definition for it at that moment.

 

 

JR

 

Hey, Google: Provide a guy just a little credit, would ya?!

Pixel superpower No. 5: The moment image extractor

 

This next one’s cool: When you’ve been considering anything involving a graphic within an app – a website, a social media marketing feed, a good screenshot that had photos within it – it is possible to press and contain the image within your Pixel’s Overview area and pull it from the preview for simple sharing or saving.

JR

 

It’s a spectacular solution to save whatever you encounter anywhere – even yet in places where you can’t usually extract images easily – and zap it over right into a note, email, message, if not you may want it anywhere.

Pixel superpower No. 6: The intelligent image searcher

 

You know just how much I  love Google Lens , right? Well, you would be forgiven for forgetting (or possibly failing to notice to begin with!), but Google’s excellent image intelligence technology is made directly into your Pixel phone’s Overview area for super-easy searching within images in virtually any apps you’ve been using.

This one’s pretty wild: Just pull up your Pixel’s Overview interface and press and hold any image you see in a app’s preview. Which should make “Lens” pop-up as an option. And when you tap it, Google’s almost eerily smart system can do a variety of things, with regards to the context:

• • It’ll identify a landmark, a painting, or perhaps a plant or an animal even, if one is pictured, and provide up additional info about this object then.

 

• • It’ll demonstrate images like the one on your own screen within Google Image Search alongside information and links linked to what’s pictured – including even shopping-related links in order to compare prices and buy that in the picture, when relevant.

 

 

JR

 

• • It’ll scan a barcode or QR code for you personally – no futzing around with third-party software required.

 

• • It’ll offer to learn text in a image out loud for you.

 

• • It’ll offer to send text within image to some type of computer where you’re also signed in (in Chrome) for hassle-free cross-platform copying.

 

 

And most of that’s just the beginning of what Lens is with the capacity of doing . Remembering that it is always standing by and obtainable in your Pixel phone’s Overview area is among the most efficient methods to utilize its magic.

Pixel superpower No. 7: The easy screenshot machine

 

Android’s always allowed one to capture screenshots with an instant press of a phone’s power and volume-down buttons, but that key combo isn’t always convenient to activate – at the very least, not without some serious hand yoga involved.

So make your self a mental note of the: It is possible to always capture a screenshot of anything by sliding the right path to your Pixel’s Overview area. Ergonomics aside, that provides you the benefit of obtaining a completely clean and neat image of whatever’s on your own screen, without all of the usual system interface elements (the status bar, the navigation buttons or bar, etc) around it.

Just march the right path back to that Pixel Overview area to check out the “Screenshot” command in the bottom of the screen.

JR

 

Tap that bad boy and tap it good, and you will be looking at a static image of anything you last had open alone, without the extra gobbledygook above or below it.

Pixel superpower No. 8: The app info shortcut

 

Ever find yourself having to go to an app’s information screen – maybe to regulate its notification behavior or permissions or to start its Play Store page in order to seek out an update or revisit some introductory info?

The swiftest solution to get there as long as you’re using an app would be to start the Overview area on your own Pixel, tap the app’s icon at the very top, and select “App info” from the menu that arises.

JR

 

Fast, easy, and fuss-free. Yes, please.

Pixel superpower No. 9: The speedy screen-splitter

 

Among Android’s most overlooked features may be the system-level option for splitting your screen in two and viewing two apps at the same time. It isn’t something you might need all that often, however when the right occasion occurs – focusing on a document while simultaneously referencing a website or email, for example, or possibly peeking in at a spreadsheet whilst also looking at photos of Gary Busey (as you does) – good golly, it could be handy sure.

And do you know what? That same sweet Pixel Overview section of ours may be the key to experiencing that magic.

Glide your fancy person-feet back to Overview just, tap the icon of the initial app you intend to used in your split-screen setup, and tap “Split screen” in the menu that appears. That app will transfer to the upper section of your screen up, and you can choose the second app you intend to complete the picture then.

JR

 

Whee!

Pixel superpower No. 10: The app-pinning possibility

 

A handy but hidden Android feature I usually forget to use may be the software’s app-pinning system. Activated once, it enables you to lock one specific app or process to your screen and need a pin or passcode let me give you can be accessed.

The essential idea is you could pass your phone off to a pal, a co-worker, or some types of rabid jungle bird – to allow them to visit a document maybe, look at something on an internet site, or peck out an instant call while their very own tiny bird-phone isn’t handy. And because you proactively pinned whatever app was highly relevant to that purpose to your screen, it is possible to rest easy knowing the rest of one’s stuff will stay secure and inaccessible before phone’s back in the hands.

To get that one going, you need to turn up the feature inside your Pixel phone’s settings:

• • Swipe down twice from the very best of the screen, tap the gear-shaped icon to start the system-level settings then.

 

• • Tap the Security section.

 

• • Tap the “Advanced” line at the bottom of the screen, then tap “App pinning.”

 

• • Make certain the toggle near the top of that screen is in the active and on position, and make certain the secondary toggle (“Lock device when unpinning” or “Require unlock pattern before unpinning,” based on your Android version ) can be active.

 

 

First got it? Good. Now, with that option active, hop into your Pixel Overview area back, tap the icon of any app you intend to pin, to check out the aptly named “Pin” option for the reason that adorable little menu.

JR

 

Tap that, say “Ooga, booga, gherkin, workin’!” once and for all measure (and for my very own personal amusement), and ta-da: That app will undoubtedly be locked in place. To obtain past it and into other things, you’ll first need to swipe your finger up from underneath of the screen and hold it set up for a couple seconds, then provide whatever types of unlocking authentication (PIN, pattern, password, appendage, 14 spots of blood from your own pinky toe, etc) is suitable to continue.

If you are still using Android’s old three-button nav system, you’ll instead press the square-shaped Overview button to access the Overview interface, and you will press and contain the Back and Overview buttons together from there as you prepare to unpin.

Pixel superpower No. 11: The pausing power

 

This next item is another oft-overlooked Android option. It enables you to pause a person app temporarily, this means the app’s icon are certain to get grayed out and the app will not be in a position to send you any notifications until either you unpause it or your day ends – whichever comes first. It is a fine solution to give yourself a reprieve from the horrors of social media marketing, the humans of one’s workplace Slack channel, or whatever other force is demanding an excessive amount of your attention throughout your (allegedly) off-work hours.

The app-pausing power is definitely just two taps away in your Pixel’s Overview area: Reach that Overview interface, touch your preferred phalange to the icon of whatever app you intend to pause, and press the “Pause app” option. If you decide you intend to unpause the app prior to the day’s done, just find and tap its icon inside your home app or screen drawer, as well as your phone shall prompt one to undo the deed.

Pixel superpower No. 12: The new start flick

 

Lastly inside our Pixel Overview superpower collection can be an option that’s widely misunderstood and probably used more regularly than it oughta be. But it’s certainly worth being conscious of for the right types of situations.

So here ’tis: Whilst viewing any app inside your phone’s Overview area, it is possible to flick its card upward to dismiss it from the list. That’ll also dismiss the app from the phone’s active memory and lead it to start up fresh next time you open it rather than picking right up where you left off, as it would normally.

Despite what some people believe, there’s really you don’t need to do that as a matter of habit. Android manages its active memory and removes stuff as needed automatically. Due to that, constantly closing everything out as a kind of compulsive “cleaning” is both unnecessary and frequently even counterproductive (because the system will automatically restart whatever must be running, which in turn results in even less efficient usage of resources). However when an app is acting funky or for a few other reason takes a reset, this one-two flickeroo is really a fine Overview tool to keep in mind.

And remember, too: There’s lots more where this originated from. Come join my free Pixel Academy e-course for seven full days of delightful Pixel knowledge – you start with some camera-centric smarts and moving from there to advanced image magic, next-level nuisance reducers, and oodles of other opportunities for advanced Pixel intelligence.

If there’s a very important factor I’ve learned as time passes, it’s that within the land o’ Googley matters, there’s always something new just waiting to be discovered.