One of the truly new features onboard the Google Pixel 11 series is HiLight — a collection of eight multicolor LEDs on the back of the Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. It's quite limited at launch, however. HiLight serves two main purposes out of the box: It glows one of five colors when a favorite contact calls, and it glows when the Gemini voice assistant is active.
In other words, HiLight doesn't do a lot. Even if you like the idea of using HiLight to know when your contacts are calling, you can set it up for just five people before the colors get confusing. Luckily, there's a free and open-source app called HiLight Studio that aims to give you more control over the lights.
It takes a bit of work to set up, but after that's done, HiLight Studio delivers what your Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, or Pixel 11 Pro Fold should've been able to do out of the box. Here's the step-by-step guide to getting started with HiLight Studio.
What HiLight Studio does, and how to download it
Put simply, HiLight Studio gives you full control over the eight individual LEDs that make up the HiLight module on the back of your phone. It can do solid colors and animated patterns, and it's customizable. You can control it from the app or a Quick Settings tile.
HiLight Studio is the brainchild of Dhananjay Bhosale on GitHub, and you can sideload it from there. Crucially, the app is now on the Google Play Store for open testing. So you can download it for free from a trusted source with no sign-up required.
I thought HiLight Studio setup would be tricky — it wasn't
HiLight Studio isn't an app you can simply download and start using, because it requires privileged access to the Android lights service, according to the app's developer. You can achieve this by rooting your phone, using Android Debug Bridge (ADB), or Shizuku — an app that allows other apps to access privileged APIs without the risks of rooting your Android device. Even as an Android expert, the process sounded intimidating, but it wasn't.
Shizuku is available on the Google Play Store, meaning you can set up HiLight Studio without sideloading a single app. To get started, install Shizuku from the Play Store and enable developer options in the Settings app. Here's how to do it:
1. Open the Settings app on your Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, or Pixel 11 Pro Fold.
2. Scroll down to the About phone section, and tap it.
3. Find the Build number and tap it seven times to enable developer options. You will need to enter your device passcode to confirm the change.
After you've enabled developer options, you can use wireless debugging to start Shizuku. Here's how to do it:
1. Open Shizuku and tap the Pairing button.
2. Open the Settings app and navigate to System -> Developer options. Alternatively, you can tap the Developer options shortcut in Shizuku.
3. Flip on the Wireless debugging toggle in Shizuku, and tap the Wireless debugging menu.
4. Press Pair device with pairing code. Hit Allow to confirm your choice to allow wireless debugging on your network.
5. A pairing code will appear. When the notification from Shizuku appears, enter the pairing code in the notification and press Send.
6. Now, Shizuku is paired. Press Start in the Shizuku app to finish setup.
To put the finishing touches on setup, you need to link HiLight Studio to Shizuku. Don't worry, this one is quick and easy:
1. Open the HiLight Studio app.
2. Switch to the Setup page.
3. Look for Shizuku and tap Request access. Finally, approve the request.
That's it — you've now granted HiLight Studio access to the Android lights service. Now, you can enjoy the fun part, which is customizing the lights on the back of your phone. While there are a lot of steps in this process, they're pretty painless, and I didn't run into a single issue during setup.
You'll need to restart the HiLight Studio render and Shizuku every time your device reboots. Unless you reboot your Pixel often, this shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience.
HiLight is finally as customizable as it was meant to be
After setup, opening HiLight presents you with a Live screen that shows you what the HiLight Studio renderer is doing right now. You can test out a lighting effect on this screen. This allows you to get a feel for the nine LED effects supported by the app: Rainbow, Random, Strobe, Comet, Pulse, Heartbeat, Breathe, Wave, and Radar. As you demo each effect, it'll run for four seconds before returning to your default.
Near the bottom of this page, you'll see the App rules you have enabled. If this is your first time trying out HiLight Studio, you won't see anything here. Instead, you'll need to tap the Apps tab. This is where the real magic begins — you can set up exactly what HiLight does for a particular app. Here are a few examples of what HiLight Studio can do:
- Show a color or animation when an app receives a notification.
- Show a color or animation when an app receives a notification from a specific contact.
- Show a color or animation while an app is opened.
- Show a color or animation while Android reports the microphone or camera is active.
There's a ton of room for customization here, and these app rules only scratch the surface of what HiLight Studio can do. In the Setup page, you can specify how long HiLight Studio can keep the LEDs active before they automatically shut off. These lights aren't designed to be active for long periods of time, which is why these limits are in place.
You can override the auto-off defaults and allow up to five minutes of continued use. However, hardware protection is a built-in feature that lowers the brightness after 10 seconds of continuous use. Additionally, the eight-LED array will turn off if it has been lit for more than half of the last 10 minutes.
Why you should try HiLight Studio on your Pixel 11
When you unbox your Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, or Pixel 11 Pro Fold and try HiLight for the first time, you'll immediately realize it has tons of potential. Unfortunately, Google hasn't realized that potential in HiLight's current implementation. The two use cases officially supported by the Pixel 11 series won't meaningfully change how you use your phone.
HiLight Studio will, which is why it's worth giving the app a shot on your new Pixel phone. Hopefully, Google adds similar functionality to HiLight natively in the future.
Glowing Google foldable
The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold is a standout foldable in its own right, with rare IP68 durability and magnetic Qi2 support. But it also gets the HiLight feature, and you can fully harness it with the free HiLight Studio app.
