The Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL are Google’s second generation smartphone under the new Pixel brand. Last year they released what was reviewed as the highest rated smartphone camera ever and they were able to beat everyone else on the market again with the release of the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. There are plenty of places where you can learn about the basic hardware and software features of the device, and I can point you to the Google Store for a quick rundown, but today I want to focus on the tips and tricks regarding these two new devices.
Most Android OEMs have a reputation of not getting updates fast enough and this is where Google is different. Not only are they not bogging down the software with bloatware, but they are usually the first to push out any Android update. For this reason, I’m seeing a lot of iOS users switching to Android for the first time so I wanted to put together an entire page that details the different things you can do with your device. This can be anything from simple boot modes to the more sophisticated modifications like a custom recovery, gaining root access, and more.
Pixel 2 Boot Modes
There are a number of special boot modes for different Android smartphones. These allow you to gain a certain level of access to various portions of the device and they’re something that everyone should know about. For instance, you may need to boot the Pixel 2 into Fastboot Mode if you want to manually flash the factory images (aka the firmware) from Google to your device. This is also where you will install a custom recovery (like TWRP), but I’ll talk about this later.
Since I just mentioned a custom recovery, you should know that the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL have what is known as a Recovery Mode. You will need to boot the Pixel 2 into Recovery Mode if you ever want to manually install an OTA update via ADB or the internal storage. It’s also where you’ll go if you can’t boot into Android and therefore need to perform a factory reset on the Pixel 2. If you end up installing TWRP as your custom recovery, this is how you will boot into the TWRP main menu as well.
The last of the three special boot modes for Android is called Safe Mode. Now, Android applications have a lot of power when it comes to what they can do on your smartphone. While things are quite as open as a desktop PC, individual 3rd-party applications can completely change the way the Pixel 2 looks or functions. If one of these is buggy or poorly optimized though, it can cause all sorts of nasty issues including overheating during everyday tasks, poor battery life and possibly some instability issues due to various conflicts.
Some are quick to just blame the current version of Android they’re on, or the Pixel 2 itself, but it’s common that a 3rd-party application is the culprit. The very first troubleshooting step you should take in these cases is to boot the Pixel 2 into Safe Mode. This is a restricted boot mode on Android that completely disables 3rd-party applications from being launched. So if you’re experiencing one of those issues then you’ll want to boot into Safe Mode and see if they persist.
If the issues continue, then it is likely due to the Android OS or the latest update you installed. But if they issues are fixed in Safe Mode, then it’s caused by a 3rd-party application and you’ll need to uninstall them until you find out which one it is.
Basic Pixel 2 Software Features
As I mentioned, there seems to be a lot of people using the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL that have never used Android before. This means that some of the most common features are likely unknown to those people. I enjoy teaching people how to use their smartphone so let’s start with the basics. First, a very common question is how to take a screenshot on the Pixel 2 or the Pixel 2 XL. Most Android devices typically perform this action the same way but the OEM can change it if they want.
Earlier I spoke about sometimes needing to perform a factory reset if the software isn’t working properly. This issue seems to happen from time to time when an OTA update is installed. I can install dozens of OTA updates on the smartphones I own but every now and then a new update messes things up. For whatever reason though, if you’re experiencing any strange issues including poor performance, bad battery life, or even overheating, then you should definitely factory reset the Pixel 2.
Gestures are becoming more and more popular in the smartphone world and we have a number of features that use gestures on the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. The one that is receiving the most attention is the Active Edge gesture that lets you trigger the Google Assistant simply by squeezing the sides of the device. This feature is enabled by default but you can follow these steps to turn off Active Edge on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL if you end up not liking the feature.
Another popular gesture is available when you swipe the fingerprint scanner on the back of the device. Unlike Active Edge, this gesture is disabled by default so you will want to check out this guide on how to enable the fingerprint swipe gesture on the Pixel 2 and 2XL. One enabled, you can swipe the fingerprint scanner down once to reveal the notification panel and a second time to expand the Quick Settings panel. A simple swipe up when either of those panels are displayed with collapse them again.
More and more smartphones these days are using OLED screens and this allows them to include an always on display without using much of the battery. Google’s new phones are on different in this regard but this isn’t a feature that everyone wants. So instead of having the time, date and notification icons on the screen at all times (even when the device is locked), you can follow these steps to turn off the Always On Display of the Pixel 2 phones. Doing this can save you some battery life (even if just a little) and it will also help to prevent burn in from happening.
Speaking of notifications, not everyone wants to keep the screen on at all times just to be informed about when a notification has come in. Sure, that feature can also be useful for glancing at the time but not everyone wants this. For years, smartphones have embedded an RGB light in the top bezel of the device just so they would alert you to incoming notifications without using sound or a vibration. By default, this feature is disabled but you can follow this guide to enable the Pixel 2 LED notification light.
Staying on topic, Google has also recently added another feature as a way to convey to you that an application has a notification waiting on you. We have traditionally looked up at the status bar for these icons but with Android 8.0 Oreo we now have what is referred to as Notification Dots. This feature puts a small badge on the top right corner of the application icon on the Home Screen when something is waiting for you. Not everyone likes this feature though so thankfully you can disable the Pixel 2 Notification Dots right from the Settings application.
We use our smartphones for all sorts of things and this can result in a lot of icons sitting in our Status Bar. Icons on the left and right are generally for things that are actionable right now (aka notifications), but the icons in the right side of the Status Bar tend to be more static and stay there for a long time. Personally, I don’t need to know what my cellular signal is at (woohoo for Project Fi) or if I have my phone in Do Not Disturb Mode. This is why I like Android’s System UI Tuner feature cause I can hide any Status Bar icon on the Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL with it.
Customizing the Pixel 2
This is where we get into the most popular requests, customizing the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. It doesn’t matter if you want to install a custom recovery, gain root access, install a custom kernel or a custom ROM, there are a ton of options to choose from when it comes to installing system modifications on Android. This section will be limited to root and the like though and I recommend you check out the applications category if you’re looking for more traditional 3rd-party applications.
The first thing you’ll need to do is to unlock the bootloader of the Pixel 2. Android phones have a locked bootloader that prevents you from installing custom software to the system partition, recovery partition and even the bootloader partition. However, you will also need to unlock the bootloader if you want to manually flash the factory images (aka firmware) from Google. This can be needed if you want a fresh install of Android on the device.
This next part is optional, but if you have just flashed a fresh version of Android on the device (again, from Google’s factory firmware images) then you may want to lock the bootloader of the Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL. Do not, I repeat, do not lock the bootloader if you have done any modifications like a custom recovery, root, custom kernel, custom ROM, etc. You should only follow this guide to relock the bootloader if the software on the phone is 100% complete stock.
Locking the bootloader isn’t something that is required, but you may want to do this in case you’re trying to get Android Pay working again and for some reason don’t (or can’t) get Magisk to pass Google’s SafetyNet checks (which I’ll talk about later). If you ever want to install a modification, gain root access, or flash any other ZIP file from the developer community then you’re going to need a custom recovery installed on the Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL.
For those who are curious, I have detailed a guide about how to install TWRP on the Pixel 2 as well as the Pixel 2 XL and this method will replace your stock recovery mode with the custom recovery. Once you have TWRP installed there are a couple of features it has that you should be made aware of. A lot of people use TWRP so that they can create a Nandroid backup of the Pixel 2 which can then be used to restore the backup for the Pixel 2 in case something happens.
A popular modification from the community is gaining root access this shows you how to root the Pixel 2 with Magisk. If you fully install this on your device, know that you will no longer be able to accept official OTA updates because the recovery partition has been modified. However, you can also return the Pixel 2 back to stock Android with this guide and then you can accept OTA updates again. Alternatively, if you only temporarily boot into TWRP and then flash Magisk, then it will let you gain systemless root access to the Pixel 2 phones.
This means the system partition hasn’t been changed and unless you have other root applications that modified the partition then you can accept OTA updates just like you normally would.
Software navigation buttons are preferred by some people but personally I feel they take up too much of the screen. I would rather have all of my applications reach all the way to the bottom of the screen so I can see more of the content. Android’s Immersive Mode does this in a way, but it doesn’t keep the navbar hidden when the keyboard is up. So I really enjoy removing the Navigation Bar of the Pixel 2 entirely so that I can replace the Pixel 2 navigation buttons with gestures.
Xposed Framework is probably the most popular Android modification available today and it fully supports the Pixel 2. Xposed generally takes a while to get updated to support the latest version of Android (it took over a year to support Nougat), but support for Oreo came rather quickly. So I wrote up a detailed tutorial on how to install Xposed Framework on the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. This will prevent SafetyNet checks from passing (even with Magisk installed), but you could also choose to install systemless Xposed on the Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL if that is your preference.
Applications for the Pixel 2
I recently wrote a guide about how to disable the Google Feed as the company recently updated it and has filled it with article suggestions that aren’t very good. The feed itself isn’t as easy to disable as it used to be so that guide is a great way to get rid of it. There are some people who don’t like the Google application page sitting to the left of the Home Screen at all. So if you don’t even want to see that page then you can disable the Google Now Feed application page on the Pixel 2.
That guide works on any device that is using the Pixel Launcher and another popular application for Oreo is Substratum. Substratum with the paid add-on Andromeda is the best way to install a theme on an Oreo device (and it’s the only way to do with right now without root access). All of this works with the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL as well so if you have a favorite Substratum theme that supports it then you can follow this guide about how to install Substratum themes on the Pixel 2.