The Pixel 11 Pro’s HiLight LED is bafflingly limited out of the box, but a new app removes its shackles

The Pixel 11 Pro's HiLight feature can't do much out of the box, but a new app changes that
Called HiLight Studio, this lets you use HiLight with any app and customize the colors and patterns
However, setting it up requires jumping through far more hoops than a typical app

HiLight seems like it should be the big new addition for the Google Pixel 11 Pro series. This LED on the back of the phone can light up in a selection of colors, alerting you to calls from favorite contacts and letting you know when Gemini is active, but out of the box, that’s all it can do.

It can’t interact with any other app, and even for Gemini and favorite contacts, it’s limited in its customization, leading our Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold review to describe HiLight as “not a must-have,” while some other publications went even further, with Android Authority calling it “pointless,” and GSMArena describing it as “borderline useless.”

Clearly, then, HiLight isn’t the headline addition it could and perhaps should have been — but an app developer has taken it into their own hands to change that.

X user @Dhananjay_Tech has created an app called HiLight Studio that lets you activate the HiLight LED for notifications from any app, or when launching an app. You can also customize the color or pattern of the LED, and the app is free of both charges and adverts.

A hassle to install

That said, there are some potential issues here. For one thing, it was reportedly vibe coded using AI, which doesn’t fully inspire confidence, and it’s also not available as a download from Google Play. Instead, you need to download the app from GitHub, install the Shizuku app, and then activate HiLight Studio through that, by finding the downloaded GitHub file on Shizuku and selecting Setup > Request access.

This isn’t a huge deal, but it’s a lot more hassle than a typical app, and the app also needs restarting manually each time you reboot your phone.

These requirements have led to mixed reactions on Reddit, with one user saying “this is so much better” than the standard HiLight functionality, while another argued “requires Shizuku... so complete non-starter,” and other comments taking a similar mix of perspectives.

The hope, regardless, is that Google might soon embrace HiLight’s full potential through an update, so you don’t have to turn to third-party apps. But for now, this at least is a way to get more out of what could have been a really cool feature.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.