The Pixel 9’s UI Might Be The Most Uncustomizable Version Of Android, And I Hate It

If you’re looking for a top-tier Android smartphone, you may be considering a phone from the Samsung Galaxy S25 series or the Google Pixel 9 lineup. While Samsung’s smartphones are excellent, you may be tempted to opt for Google’s offerings if you’re an Android purist. I picked up a Google Pixel 9 because I wanted a compact smartphone with good cameras and smooth software. While it delivers on those fronts, I regret not knowing a few things about the phone before buying it.

I’m not referring to the hardware. I know the Tensor G4 chip inside the Pixel 9 isn’t the most powerful SoC. I expected average battery performance and thermal management. The quirks I experienced are due to the Pixel UI. The software that’s regarded as the holy grail of Android has several inconsistencies I wish I had known about before spending my money. If you plan to buy a Pixel smartphone, here’s what you need to know before swiping your credit card.

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The Google Pixel 9 makes me question if I need to go Pro

The Pixel 9 has everything most people want from a phone

6 At a Glance is useful, but annoying

I don’t want to see it all the time

Google’s At a Glance widget has been around for a long time. It displays the weather information, upcoming calendar events, the gate from which your upcoming flight departs, and more. It’s smart and learns your usage patterns to display relevant recommendations. However, I wish it didn’t throw so much information in my face when I unlock my phone.

There are settings for At a Glance that allow you to choose what information you see. However, if you disable everything, you’ll see a useless widget on your home screen that you can’t disable. Google should provide an option to remove the At a Glance widget from the home screen for those who don’t use it. No widget should be compulsory on any phone.

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5 Why is the search bar persistent?

I like my search bar at the top

Along with the At a Glance widget, the Google search bar is persistent and cannot be removed from the home screen. I don’t mind this since I use the search bar to find apps or search the web. However, I like having my search bar at the top of the screen on all my phones. The Pixel launcher doesn’t allow you to change the location of the search bar.

These decisions contradict what Android stands for: providing users with customization options per their preferences. Both issues can be negated using a custom launcher, but I shouldn’t have these issues. It’s also strange how the search bar moves to the top when I open the app drawer. Talk about design inconsistencies!

4 Adaptive brightness isn’t the same as auto-brightness

It’s super-annoying

I keep auto-brightness enabled on all my phones since it automatically adjusts the brightness to the environment. On Pixel devices, auto-brightness is replaced by adaptive brightness, which is different. Instead of adjusting the brightness based on your surroundings, the brightness level varies based on the user’s past adjustments and preferences.

For instance, if you reduced the screen brightness previously, even in a bright environment, adaptive brightness will not shoot up the brightness to the maximum level, unlike auto-brightness. I do not like this behavior and find it counterintuitive. Google should switch to auto-brightness like other brands.

3 Software updates take forever to install

Other phones are much faster

I love how Google introduced seamless software updates, which meant I didn’t have to wait with my phone turned off for newer version updates to install. While that is still the case on my Pixel 9, installing these updates is extremely slow. A security patch update took close to 40 minutes to install on my phone, which is too long.

Moreover, the phone got slightly hot to the touch during the installation, so I couldn’t do anything intensive on the phone until the update finished installing. This is a bummer since seamless updates should make the update installation faster and more efficient. I didn’t face such delays when using the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra or Vivo X200 Pro.

2 Quick toggles are hard to access

Only four settings are visible

While Android skins like One UI, OxygenOS, and HyperOS switched to a quick toggles page with multiple shortcuts, Google stuck with four toggles when you bring down the notification shade. The toggle size is unnecessarily large, which tells me that Google could have fit six or eight toggles in the same space if the width of each shortcut had been reduced.

More shortcuts help you save time by letting you change settings quickly. For instance, if I wish to toggle Airplane mode on a Pixel, I swipe down twice to bring down the notification tray and then expand it further. The additional swipe isn’t required on a Samsung or OnePlus smartphone, since the quick settings pane has more shortcuts. I don’t understand the logic behind complicating a simple feature. More toggles are always better.

1 Why no multi-window?

I want to run more than two apps

Split-screen multitasking has been a part of Android for a long time. You can launch two apps and use them simultaneously by splitting your phone’s screen into two halves. While this is useful, I appreciate the better multitasking features present on rival UIs. For example, Samsung’s One UI and Xiaomi’s HyperOS offer a multi-window feature that allows you to launch small versions of apps as overlays.

It’s similar to how you launch multiple program windows on your computer. If I want a single app to use the entire screen real estate, and only want to open an app to reference something, I prefer the multi-window implementation over the split-screen view. I’m not sure why Google hasn’t added the feature, especially on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, given that it has larger screen real estate.

Pixel UI needs a massive overhaul

Since Pixel smartphones are widely regarded as a portal to experiencing the purest form of Android, several quirks ruin the user experience of owning a Pixel. While the overall smartphone is excellent, I can’t help but hope Google fixes these issues in the upcoming version of the Pixel UI with Android 16. Until then, Samsung’s One UI will remain my top choice for an Android skin.

Google Pixel 9

The Pixel 9 is Google’s most affordable 2024 flagship, making a few compromises when compared to the Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL while retaining the Google smarts the lineup has become known for. An upgraded 48MP ultra-wide camera is paired with a 50MP main shooter, and the selfie cam added autofocus. All of this comes with new Gemini AI features and a 2,700-nit Actua display for exceptional value at its price point.