How to remove the persistent battery icon in YouTube on the Pixel 4

Since the Pixel 4 first launched, it has garnered plenty of criticism for a variety of reasons. Some of them present a major security flaw, such as face unlock working with your eyes closed, while others are less benign, such as the lack of 4K 60fps video recording, which is either due to lack of storage or simply because Google thinks users don't need it.

Now, there is another annoyance being caused by one of the Pixel 4's signature features. For whatever reason, Motion Sense is causing a faint battery icon to appear over videos when watching them in full screen on the Pixel 4. Given the poor battery performance on the Pixel 4 phones, perhaps this is a "feature" because it seems too deliberate to be a bug. Especially because the icon itself is dimmed in an attempt to lessen the distraction.

Why does it only appear in YouTube videos though? Most likely because YouTube is one of the only video apps to currently support Motion Sense gestures.

However, if you're anything like me, this is nothing but a constant distraction and one you'd like to remove. Thankfully, it is quite easy to disable this persistent battery icon, but it will require turning off the "skip songs" feature in the Motion Sense settings.

That's not the only thing that could be frustrating Pixel 4 users these days. It was just yesterday we reported that, despite the November security update being released on the fourth, many users still haven't received it (even our own Joe Maring). Timely updates have always been a selling point for Pixel phones, or at least they were.