It just goes to show that Google makes some great devices!

Last month I decided to upgrade my mobile contract and get the iPhone 14 Pro Max. I know that this may sound strange for many, especially with the iPhone 15 Pro Max being out, but my mobile provider has given me a pretty decent upgrade offer on the phone, so I went with it.

What can I say, the Apple ecosystem really does attract!

Now, over the last 2 years, I’ve been a Google Pixel user, I had the Google Pixel 6 Pro and the Google Pixel 7 Pro which I use as my secondary phone. I also have the Google Pixel Watch which I think is a great smartwatch and possibly one of my favourite WearOS watches!

Keeping that in mind, and now that I’m an iPhone user, there are a few things that I miss from both the Google Pixel 6 Pro and the 7 Pro. That is why I decided to share 4 main things I miss from the Google Pixel…

1. The At a Glance Widget

The At a Glance Widget is possibly one of my favourite things about the Google Pixel Phones.

At a Glance is a feature on Google Pixel Phones that provides some incredibly useful and relevant information on the home screen.

The widget usually displays information that is relevant to you at a certain time, such as calendar events, the weather and current date and time.

But wouldn’t it be boring if that was all it could do?

Well, the feature is so much more!

For example, when I was travelling during the summer, it showed information about my flight. It can also show a whole lot of other useful information such as parcel deliveries, train information and much more!

I seriously love the entire concept of At a Glance and I wish that Google provided a widget for it on iOS in the same way as they do for other Android devices such as Samsung.

I think that the widget would work really well on the iOS lock screen!

2. Monthly Updates and the Feature Drops!

Second on the list are the monthly updates as well as the feature drops. I just love waiting to see what Google does next with the Google Pixel devices!

Since I got the Google Pixel 6 Pro, Google has released some incredibly cool features and improvements, which just shows how innovative they are.

In my opinion, the fact that Google is releasing all these updates and is constantly improving its apps puts Google in a really strong position in the market. But is it enough for them to compete against Apple and Samsung?

After all, I think it’s fair to say that Google are still pretty small in the smartphone market and when it comes to customers making purchasing decisions, they are probably more likely to pick a brand that they know and can trust.

This is a shame as the Google Pixel phones are brilliant!

The other thing that I think spoils it for Google is that they are competing against manufacturers that are releasing more powerful hardware. But what people need to understand is that power isn’t everything, especially when it comes to smartphones.

The original Google Pixel Watch is a perfect example of that, because not only does it look incredibly good, but it also works well but it has an older chip!

3. The Interface

The 3rd thing I wanted to talk about is that clean interface.

Google prides itself on that clean Android experience and I’ve got to admit they’ve been delivering on that since the early days of the Google Pixel Phones.

I know that I’ve talked a lot about the Pixel 6 Pro and the Pixel 7 Pro, but they weren’t my first Google Pixel devices!

The first Google Pixel phone I owned was the Google Pixel 2, I then had a Google Pixel 3a XL, followed by the Google Pixel 5.

I enjoyed every single one of these phones and the main reason for that was the clean interface as well as the camera.

In its current design, I think that the interface works really well, but there are a few things that I think Google should work on.

Starting with the lock screen experience. I think that Apple has nailed it with the home screen widgets and the way that the wallpaper blends in. In all fairness, the current lock screen on my Pixel 7 Pro looks really nice, but I think it would look even better with the ability to add widgets that aren’t just the basics like the clock.

4. The Pixel Experience

Moving on to the 4th thing on the list, the Pixel experience.

In my opinion, Google offers a unique experience across their devices and if you use services such as Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Nest for your smart home, it creates a pretty good ecosystem.

I think they have a long way to go if we compare them to Apple, but I think that Google seriously have the potential to build a great ecosystem that integrates AI.

Over the years I’ve used many smartphones and one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to them is apps that repeat themselves. I’m looking at you Samsung!

I don’t see the need for both Google Calendar and the Samsung Calendar app to be installed. I also don’t see the need for there to be 2 app stores, but that’s just my view and it’s not only Samsung that is doing this.

Google doesn’t need to do this as they just include the Google apps. This alone makes the phones seem a lot cleaner in terms of bloatware.

But it’s not only that as I find that my Google Pixel 7 Pro works really well with my Pixel Watch and Pixel Buds Pro as well as other Google devices I own.

Moving on to Google Apps, I think that they offer a clean and modern experience, but I think that many of the apps still require more work. For example, I would love to see Google Tasks improved.

I mean it’s a basic task manager in its current form, but I feel it lacks in features that other free task managers have such as an automated Today list. But the main thing I want to see with the app is a WearOS version of it that is separate from the Calendar app.

Final Thoughts

As a whole, I am incredibly satisfied with my new iPhone, but there are features that I miss from the Google Pixel Experience.

I think it would be interesting to see whether I can cope without some of these features. I mean when I moved back to Android from iOS over 2 years ago, I struggled for a long time, especially when it came to finding replacements for the apps that I enjoyed using on iOS that weren’t available on Android.

But I got used to it to such an extent that I am now missing features as an iOS user.

On a slightly separate opinion, I feel that iOS is exactly where I left it when I switched back to Android, with a few new features. That leaves me to believe that Apple seriously needs to make improvements to the look and feel of iOS and maybe improve Siri, particularly with AI capabilities.

Yes, I know that many will disagree with this!

One of the reasons I like Apple is their approach to their ecosystem. I mean everything works so smoothly between my iPhone, MacBook, Apple Watch and my iPad and other brands are getting there!

But to summarise this post, I still love the Google Pixel experience, which is why I am keeping the Google Pixel 7 Pro as my secondary phone.

Google Pixel Ecosystem: The Good, The Bad, and The Apple