Phones Google Pixel 8/8 Pro

[robvalentine]

I'm glad I was actively looking to move away from a smartwatch, and more into a dedicated fitness tracker, so swapping my apple watch for a Garmin Venu 2 Plus wasn't too bad for me, it shows notifications and can activate google assistant ok, so it covers my need. I have just switched to windoze, and PC link, or whatever it's called works well with my p8p.

I have only minor hankerings to switch back to s23 + which I think are mostly led by the internet saying the internals are better, and it does have better battery life, reception seems the same (I live in a patchy signal area anyway)

 

[Djones96]

I've heard some good reviews with the Samsung Watch 6.. I'm one that definitely needs my AWU... Luckily I could carry an iPhone daily... I guess I would get used to it if I had to move over but I would definitely miss it... Right now the iPhone has more customization than ever which is making it fun creating different widgets and screens... I think the camera and video is top notch from my non -expert point of view lol... And although some people think it's boring I don't find it that way at all tbh... I think that this pixel phone is excellent and the best one to release ... Some people will have issues with any phone release so I like to find out for myself ..

The Samsung Watch 6 is the only one that I've heard decent things about, but seeing it in videos, it doesn't seem like it'd be a good replacement for my AWU, the thing is just too good..
I have considered carrying 2 phones, one Android one iPhone, but my problem with that would be, whichever phone is using my main SIM would be the one I'd want to use the most since It'd be a hassle trying to get pertinent notifications on both phones, and texting back and forth with someone that doesn't have my other phone number would get very confusing.
I don't find the iPhone to be boring per say, the phone just works, but looking at Android I always get a little jealous of everything it does well. Even though I am envious of the customization of Android, I think I enjoy the iPhone more because I don't get anxiety feeling like I have to customize it every day lol. That being said, I'd love to have a pixel..

 

[Dave245]

This is the new offer for the holidays, anyone know if this is better than the Watch 2? (When ordering a Pixel 8 Pro)

 

[Vegastouch]

It must be an American thing, im in the UK and use WhatsApp, i hardly ever use iMessage. In the past iMessage was my go too but all of my friends and even work colleagues are now on WhatsApp.

I think it’s more teenagers, “if you haven’t got an iPhone you’re not cool” type of mentality.

The thing is I don’t personally think iPhones are the best looking anymore, they use to be but not anymore. The Pixel 8 looks more unique and the S23 Ultra looks great too.

I don't know anyone who uses WhatsApp here so I'd say it is a USA thing

 

[Djones96]

I don't know anyone who uses WhatsApp here so I'd say it is a USA thing

iMessage is definitely the go-to in the US, No one I know uses WhatsApp, literally no one.

 

[Vegastouch]

Must be the younger people who are into this blue bubble thing too. Sounds silly.

My daughter has an iPhone and was here on Thanksgiving.
I asked what color bubble she gets from me.
She just said it's green and said it just means I don't have a iPhone. I didn't know it was a thing.

But she is 34 and doesn't care. She is one of the few who isnt on Facebook or TikTok. Not sure if she has Instagram. I even have that but I don't use it much.
Don't use TikTok.

Son is 29, he has an Pixel 6a right now.

 

[Dave245]

I don't know anyone who uses WhatsApp here so I'd say it is a USA thing

it must be, I’m in the UK and use Whatsapp. I do have people who iMessage me occasionally, but if they couldn't iMessage they would just text me.

I think Google has its own thing tho, doesn’t it? With Google messages.

 

[Harthag]

Finally got all of my photos and videos into Google photos correctly. The easiest way is to just download all original size files to the iPhone, turn off iCloud, and then upload in original quality to Google photos. During the process my iPhone throttled itself due to heat and was really laggy, never experienced that until now. Regardless, the escape from the walled garden is finally complete and I don't need Apple anymore for my photos and videos.

Even if I go back to iPhone I'll still use Google photos and not iCloud, so I won't need to deal with this again.

 

[boswald]

Finally got all of my photos and videos into Google photos correctly. The easiest way is to just download all original size files to the iPhone, turn off iCloud, and then upload in original quality to Google photos. During the process my iPhone throttled itself due to heat and was really laggy, never experienced that until now. Regardless, the escape from the walled garden is finally complete and I don't need Apple anymore for my photos and videos.

Even if I go back to iPhone I'll still use Google photos and not iCloud, so I won't need to deal with this again.

That's a really good idea. I've been thinking of a way to get all my pictures switched over too, so that helps. Thank you.

 

[Bkdodger]

I would love to find a way to lower the lock color to semi ...who did it better lol

 

[aggie99]

Must be the younger people who are into this blue bubble thing too. Sounds silly.

My daughter has an iPhone and was here on Thanksgiving.
I asked what color bubble she gets from me.
She just said it's green and said it just means I don't have a iPhone. I didn't know it was a thing.

But she is 34 and doesn't care. She is one of the few who isnt on Facebook or TikTok. Not sure if she has Instagram. I even have that but I don't use it much.
Don't use TikTok.

Son is 29, he has an Pixel 6a right now.

It isn't as much about the color of bubble as it is about sending higher res media attachments. Most people prefer to just use the default messaging app that comes with their phone. As Apple owns most of the US market, that would be iMessage and as we know, as of this moment, the iPhone does not support RCS, but the old MMS standard. So anytime media attachments are sent between two users on different platforms the video is compressed and muddled to the point that it is useless. It is more annoying when in a group chat and because one user may be on a different platform a low res attachment is sent to all parties. This is totally on Apple for not getting with the current messaging standard and dropping SMS/MMS standard for RCS. Messaging will be much better across platforms when Apple implements RCS as they say they will while they can still retain many of their iMessage specific features for iPhone users.

 

[Djones96]

I would love to find a way to lower the lock color to semi ...who did it better lol

I think the iPhone looks better here! But both look great IMO.

 

[Harthag]

When did the Google news feed (swiping right on home screen) become an ad infested mess? The whole feed is ads and clicking on an article leads to tons of mini ads and pop ups within the article. It's intolerable. I've disabled personalized ads completely and am using adguard dns on a system-wide level which seems to have eliminated this completely...for now...

Are there any better ways to prevent these ads that I should be aware of? I know you can root, but I have no interest in doing that.

 

[JuicyGoomba]

When did the Google news feed (swiping right on home screen) become an ad infested mess? The whole feed is ads and clicking on an article leads to tons of mini ads and pop ups within the article. It's intolerable. I've disabled personalized ads completely and am using adguard dns on a system-wide level which seems to have eliminated this completely...for now...

Are there any better ways to prevent these ads that I should be aware of? I know you can root, but I have no interest in doing that.

Private DNS is the only decent way for now. You can also supplement it with one that uses a private VPN too.

FWIW the Google news feed has been useless for years as it's more an issue with shady web devs taking advantage of Google's algorithm to show news as opposed to Google actively spamming your feed with useless fake news and ads. It's basically cat and mouse but the mouse doesn't really care if it's eaten today or not.

Apple news was an ad infested mess the last time I used it a couple years back too, it's just anything related to news unfortunately.

I've been using twitter as a news feed for years due to Google's poor feed system, although it's looking likely that twitter will be completely gone soon so I'll have to find more alternatives.

If I remember correctly, one of the Google design award winners this year was a news app dedicated to removing all the junk and not showing ads. Completely free to use and download.

 

[psp123]

I use Private DNS but unfortunately still see adds in the Google feed sometimes. The clickbait articles are also annoying.
I think I will disable it for now.

 

[Harthag]

Another question- when my Bluetooth earbuds are connected I still receive notifications over the phone speakers as well. It can be messages, calls, pretty much any notification. Is there a way to stop this and route all sounds through the earbuds?

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Another question- when my Bluetooth earbuds are connected I still receive notifications over the phone speakers as well. It can be messages, calls, pretty much any notification. Is there a way to stop this and route all sounds through the earbuds?

If you are getting calls etc on the phone then you might have missed a step when pairing the earbuds. Go into the BT section, find your earbuds and on the gear icon tell it to forget those earbuds. Pair them again and you will get the pairing message to allow for phone calls to be picked up by the earbuds.

Now anytime you are wearing those earbuds and they are active, all audio and phone calls will be routed to the earbuds.

 

[Harthag]

If you are getting calls etc on the phone then you might have missed a step when pairing the earbuds. Go into the BT section, find your earbuds and on the gear icon tell it to forget those earbuds. Pair them again and you will get the pairing message to allow for phone calls to be picked up by the earbuds.

Now anytime you are wearing those earbuds and they are active, all audio and phone calls will be routed to the earbuds.

Just did this, made a test call from my office and the call rang on my phone and the earbuds. Apparently it was / is a problem with the Pixel 7 series as well, there was a Google support thread that died and an XDA thread on the issue where apparently it was only happening on users' Pixel phones. Odd.

If I put the sound on silent mode on my phone it also causes the earbuds to not receive calls or message notifications, the audio settings are mirrored.

 

[scott craft]

Just did this, made a test call from my office and the call rang on my phone and the earbuds. Apparently it was / is a problem with the Pixel 7 series as well, there was a Google support thread that died and an XDA thread on the issue where apparently it was only happening on users' Pixel phones. Odd.

If I put the sound on silent mode on my phone it also causes the earbuds to not receive calls or message notifications, the audio settings are mirrored.

I have the same issue with my hearing aids on my pixel fold. Pretty annoying.

 

[Harthag]

I have the same issue with my hearing aids on my pixel fold. Pretty annoying.

Apparently there's a Samsung app that people use with Samsung phones, not sure it's even an issue with other phones, but the app won't install on the Pixel. Very annoying.

 

[scott craft]

Apparently there's a Samsung app that people use with Samsung phones, not sure it's even an issue with other phones, but the app won't install on the Pixel. Very annoying.

It wasn't an issue with my iPhone. I'm moving from the Pixel Fold to a Samsung so hopefully this will work correctly on that phone. I'm missing calls due to this.

 

[Harthag]

It wasn't an issue with my iPhone. I'm moving from the Pixel Fold to a Samsung so hopefully this will work correctly on that phone. I'm missing calls due to this.

That is unfortunate. With me I am getting interrupted often while on work calls over Bluetooth, by my ringtone and text notifications coming from the phone speaker. Need to put the phone in silent mode to avoid it. Not optimistic it'll be fixed in any update.

 

[Technerd108]

It seems the new CEO of Samsung is one who believes strongly in software optimization and look and feel or experience. Some people who were expecting Samsung to offer at least 16gb ram in the s24 ultra are upset. They feel like the CEO is letting down their core fans.

I write all this not so much to talk about Samsung but I find it very interesting that after working with Google on Tensor now Samsung is going to have a new AI software. I find it interesting that the Samsung CEO feels strongly about software optimization. I certainly have noticed in the past two releases of One UI that it has been a lot better and more refined. I think that Samsung sees the ability to probably maximize profits by downgrading some hardware that would be augmented by software. Google has been doing this for years. Apple has been doing this for years.

It is just odd to try and re order priorities when your company has been so successful mostly based on hardware. I don't see any problem adding more software but if you are going to switch there better be some clear advantage over the better hardware and in my opinion I would rather have 16gb ram as base ram in ultra and aluminum than Titanium? Am I crazy?

It makes me appreciate Google's slow and methodical as well as early approach. It is funny because Google has been going in the opposite direction by making better and better hardware as well as improving the software.

I am a long time customer of Samsung but the blatant Titanium rip off of Apple that doesn't benefit anyone instead of having more ram does bother me. It also makes me appreciate my Pixel 8 Pro even more.

 

[edubfromktown]

Just did this, made a test call from my office and the call rang on my phone and the earbuds. Apparently it was / is a problem with the Pixel 7 series as well, there was a Google support thread that died and an XDA thread on the issue where apparently it was only happening on users' Pixel phones. Odd.

If I put the sound on silent mode on my phone it also causes the earbuds to not receive calls or message notifications, the audio settings are mirrored.

Have you tried setting a contact as a favorite to see if an inbound call from that individual rings as expected?

Another thought: look into do not disturb settings and specify favorite contacts can bypass DND.

 

[Bkdodger]

Has anyone tried Beeper mini yet?