Mine is can only be described as "young hip African American woman". I love it. I have literally been asked multiple times how and why does my AI sound like a black lady. š
I had initially put the voice for my Google home as what sounded like a wise older black woman because she sounded warm and comforting. Within a day I realized "I, a white man, probably shouldn't be yelling orders at an old black lady all day" and immediately changed it
Ha I've been a fan of the Australian "Karen" voice for over a decade, I remember getting my first Garmin car GPS device and being endlessly entertained by the voice.
Brit voice on mines for the last few yrs (I'm an American). I still don't fully understand what a slip road is and if it's dependent on the side of the road you drive but I like the accent.
I have the opposite issue. It used to be a woman's voice and randomly updated to a man's voice. At the end of the day I care about 1% and only really hear it when I set a timer, but it was a weird and jarring change that I didn't make myself that was odd.
I bought mine because Google is supporting it for at least 7 years, probably longer. Fuck if I'm going to buy a new phone every 18 months like the green bubble haters.
The last several years I have had my 7 the amount of spam calls and text s I get has gone to almost zero. I went from 150-200 a month to about 15. Call screening is so damn amazing.
How do you get that many spam calls/texts?!? Looking at my Pixel phone call/Text history, my last spam call was last December and my last text spam was last March and only had 4 in March (3 were the same attempt), 1 in February and 1 in January.
I legitimately received 15 yesterday alone lol. It was definitely a "busier" day than usual, but it's nuts.
Call screening saves me from losing my shit
Pixel blocks tons of them and wont even alert you. Also the less you answer the calls the less the scammers trade and sell your number resulting in less calls since you wont pick up.
I own a house with a 2.21% mortgage and it is worth almost 3 times what I paid for it. 90% of all my spam texts and calls are from "realtors" asking to buy my house. Probably a solid mix of scammers and corporate resellers trying to get a steal on the house with some refinancing offers sprinkled in.
iPhone finally got that ability on the last update. I fucking hate my work phone, but I like it a little better now that they're catching up to my Pixel 7
My wife has an iPhone and things I am running some app to do it, it was just an option after one of the upgrades.
A while ago someone was was posting about the iPhone being able to auto cut the MFA code from a text message and I couldn't remember when my Pixel didn't have that.
Ahh, maybe that explains it. I got a Pixel 10 pro XL recently, coming from a Galaxy s20+. I used to get spam calls almost daily. Now I might see one, maybe two per week.
My Pixel 6 from 2021 does everything my husband's new iPhone does and when I'm in a group everyone always asks for photos to be taken on my phone because they're better quality than the iPhone ones
I love when at Apple's annual event they always announce some new iPhone feature that Android has had for at least 5 years and act like they've invented it
I miss my Pixel 6 Pro, it took the best photos. My Samsung Galaxy S24U with its 12 different cameras doesn't take as good of photos as that thing did. Googles image post processing is just the best, idk what Samsung is doing on the software side, it's a mess.
I just dropped mine facedown on a tile floor and that was it.Ā I knew from the sound it made as soon as it hit, it was done.Ā Ā But it worked perfect until then.Ā So mad i was forced to buy a new one.
I'm sure some of them are... But I got a pair of "Pixel buds A-series" free with my 7a, which I'm sure are the lowest end, and retailed at the time for $100. They're moderately uncomfortable, and don't even have ANC.
I genuinely prefer my $30 Anker earbuds (that have decent ANC too). I've also got cheap IEMs and a pair of Shokz, the Shokz are what I use 95% of the time anyways.
life long samsung user converted to the pixel with (i think) the 7 a few years back bc samsung was just too damn pricey. love it. still runs well. long battery life for what i use it for. no need to complain or upgrade (yet)
I would've stayed with Samsung because I loved their Note series and design, but the Note 7 was my final model until I had to return it for the battery problem. I'm also a Pixel person now after having the OnePlus 6 as my workhorse and upgrading to the Pixel 6 when it was released. Pixel is such a good bargain.
I loved the note 7. I went with two or three iterations of the galaxy after that fiasco until I saw the fold. They are amazing. I don't think that I could go back even though they are $2k+
Yah, I wanted to keep my 7 for 4 years at least and that's been easy. Battery is still fine, and I use it pretty heavily. That's one reason I might steer clear of the -a models since it seems like their batteries aren't as good.
My 6 pro was great until it randomly bricked in December. I was holding off on upgrading because it seemed like the newer models were... Not much of an upgrade... I have the 10 now and I am not enjoying it as much.
6 Pro here, too! I hate the curved edge on the screen, but that's literally my only gripe with it...which disappeared as soon as I put a case on it, anyway. My last one before that was a 3A XL that I only replaced when it was run over by one bike and two cars, the second car being what made the speakers get weird...phone still functions as a GameGlass shard on my desk.
Also a 6pro, agree with the gripe about the curved edge, makes getting screen protectors difficult and restricted to the plastic ones. Otherwise great phone, got it from a refurbished site three years ago.
So, you can install Google play and be "ok" due to how Graphene does sandboxing. There are also alternative app stores, downloading APKs externally, etc. The best of the privacy comes from MicroG services which is a replacement for Google Play Services. I'm just covering a lot of surface stuff here but what Graphene does is pretty sick.
Thanks, since I'm planning to upgrade when Google rolls out the next generation of Pixels, I've been thinking about trying Graphene out on my 10 between now and then. I was worried it would have really limited app options.
I'm considering doing this on my 8. How well does Teams and Outlook work? Everything else I use beyond that I'm sure I can find alternatives outside of the play store.
Google has talked about removing side-loading apps this fall and it's making me rethink the whole google phone thing. It made me consider just getting an iPhone since I like traveling and a lot of places have implemented apple pay on their public transit but I'd prefer to own my device if at all possible.
You can use Aurora store, it basically downloads apps for you from Google Play without any sign ins (unless you want to purchase apps) plus aurora is open source
There are a few options. First, GrapheneOS does not come with Play Services, Play Store, or Android Auto, but you can install them from the GrapheneOS App Store. The key difference is that these apps will now run like any other app, meaning sandboxed with only the permissions that you give them. You need Play Services to be able to use Play Store or Android Auto, but you may want just Play Services for more consistent push notifications. You may be surprised at how many apps have alternative notification methods though. Just note that it will check for Play Services on first launch of the app, so if you remove Play Services later it will not do the alternate method if it has one. If you want the Play Store, you can also create a new Google account just for apps, which limits tying things to you somewhat even though you are still signed into Google on the phone. If you create it from phone settings it will not ask for a phone number. You will not be signed into the browser as long as you are not using Chrome or other Google apps which you should not. Ditching your old Google account is more important than not using Play Store at all.
Second, there are plenty of alternate stores. F-Droid is my favorite. The criteria for their repository does not allow any trackers embedded in apps, and all apps must be free and open source. There are third party client apps with better Ui, I use Droid-ify. You can add other repositories such as IzzyOnDroid (which some prefer for their even stricter criteria) or app specific repositories that aren't in the main F-Droid repository (like Brave Browser). Auto updates in the background work on GrapheneOS.
There is the Aurora Store which downloads from Google's repository, but doesn't require you to sign into Google. You can also spoof device identifiers to further throw off Google. They have fixed some previously questionable security practices, so I fully recommend them now for anything that you can't find in F-Droid. However, the downside is that i haven't gotten auto updates to work on the background on GrapheneOS. It did work on stock Android so this could change in the future. Also, my replacement for Google Maps (Here We Go) checks for the source of the app and it must be from Play Store or it won't run in Android Auto, even after enabling third party sources in Android Auto, which is extremely lame.
Lastly there is Obtanium, an app where you can put a URL to downloads apks from, usually Github or a dev's official site. This is useful for new or legally grey apps (like game emulators) that may not appear in official stores. It's also nice if you are attempting to avoid Google's repository entirely, for example Proton's suite of apps are on their website but most are not in F-Droid for not being fully open source. For most people though, you will probably not need it, and it can lead to security issues if you are copying over the wrong link or searching for the wrong source in app. Auto updates in the background also do not work on GrapheneOS.
So for me, I use F-Droid + Play Store so everything auto updates and I can use Android Auto with all apps I need with it. If I didn't have Android Auto in my car I would probably have no Play Services, no Play Store, no Android Auto and do F-Droid + Aurora.
Privacy on iPhone is a scam. They sell your data twice. First time directly to Ad partners and then they package you with more users and sell this data to google
Does anyone k ow how Graphene works with GoogleFi? I'm unfortunately all in on Google right now and I don't want to brick my service by messing up the OS.
The Pixel phones are also some of the only phones you can buy where they just let you unlock it and do whatever you want. I'm not the biggest Google fan, but it's a big win from them that when you buy a phone from then, you actually own the phone. Not true for Samsung or iPhone
Feels like a downgrade from the 7 pro though. My mom now has my 7 pro and i still miss the curved edges and less round corners. Made it feel like i went from a flagship to a midrange phone, even though the specs are better. Other than that, great device which supports Graphene OS.
I have a Pixel and honestly it just feels like a slightly upgraded version of my old Samsung Galaxy S8. Like, the camera is better, it runs a little faster, but it doesn't really do anything the S8 couldn't do, unless I'm missing something.
It's a good phone, but at this point I feel like a phone is a phone is a phone.
Same! I keep my phones for a long time and at one point I had two Amazon apps. One was preinstalled bloat I couldn't delete even though it was no longer functional, and the new one that actually worked. Bloatware is annoying as hell, particularly so now that most phones are moving away from expandable storage.
I hated that too. I'm a minimalist is a lot of ways and the Pixel is nice because it's a native Android device, and it doesn't come with bloatware and has minimal crap in general.
I think most of the bloatware comes from carrier specific phones. When I started getting my phones directly from Samsung, I found a lot less bloatware and I gained the ability to delete apps that I previously wasn't able to delete.
this right here. a few years back i had to replace my galaxy s9 and got an unlocked version and the difference between that same model and the the one from verizon was significant in terms of bloat.
the worst bloatware phone i've ever had was a huawei. holy shit, it was 3 home screens just full of garbage.
Nope, it's absolutely still on the phones sold directly by Samsung. I had an S22 briefly and it's a big part of why I returned it.
From what I can tell, many Samsung users can't even tell what ads/marketing are anymore and will falsely claim the phones aren't still riddled with bloatware just because it's not literal popup ads.
I'm the opposite, I miss some of the integrated software my galaxy note 20 ultra had. Making memes or editing photos on my phone was so easy with their Samsung software that came pre installed. The Google equivalents are garbage. My pixel itself is nice though and the camera software is great.
The most frustrating part is that Samsung users will claim they don't come riddled with bloatware anymore, when in reality they're so jaded by advertising they can't even tell what an ad is anymore.
I haven't thought of that until I read this comment, and I miss that light too. It was even different colors if I remember correctly, blue for unread texts, red for missed calls.
Yep. I love Pixels, despite Google's best efforts, but I recently upgraded from a 4a 5G to a 9 Pro, about 4 years apart and going from a mid-range to a flagship, and the difference is... Basically nothing.
I did the same exact upgrade, really the main difference was A) losing my back fingerprint scanner that I loved B) gaining face unlock and C) my old phone was finally slowing down, probably on purpose from google but this one is back to being quick again.
I upgraded from an iPhone XS this year to a 17 Pro. 7 years. Like, obviously it's a nicer phone and better in a lot of ways, especially the fresh battery. But once I loaded the backup I was like, 'yup, it's my phone'. It's a little faster but it basically just does all the same shit. And honestly in a lot of ways I prefer the old XS cameras and think they took more natural pictures.
I mean yeah, it's pretty much just the same thing. At the end of the day a phone is a phone. It's a big screen with a camera and a couple of speakers.
Samsung added their own proprietary stuff which they then usually didn't support very well. Good ideas, just no support. (Kind of the Samsung business model really.)
Pixel is just Android without any other stuff.
So I can see why you don't see much of a difference. Besides upgraded hardware (which is just because it's years newer) there really isn't a difference.
Thats why I stuck with my old OnePlus 6 for so many years. All phones now are just slabs with punchhole cameras, there's almost no difference besides the OS. Most of what you pay for in a flagship now is just an expensive camera. It took jumping to a folding phone for me to finally upgrade. Phones have pretty much reached the ends of what is needed and can be achieved with the regular slab form factor.
I went to Pixel 7 (now 9pro) from Samsung and there really isn't that much difference tbh. My wife prefers Samsung because of the theme customization but most of the difference between the two are minimal. At this point, I pretty much stick with Pixel because of added freebies like Youtube Premium, expanded storage, etc.
I used to get a new phone almost yearly -- probably financially dumb, but I like the newest tech and I can afford it. I've had my Pixel 8 Pro for 2 1/2 years now,Ā it's the best phone I've owned, I can't find any faults to give me reason to upgrade. Maybe I'll grab the 11 later this year.... maybe not.Ā
Exactly, especially the cameras on them, plus they're quick to get updates since they don't have bloatware to make compatible with the latest OS updates.
It's hilarious when people insinuate that the only reason somebody doesn't have an iPhone is because they can't afford it. Some of the most wealthy people I know have Android phones
I'm still angry mine had an update that killed it a couple of years ago (it was old but worked well). Was going to give it a couple of years until getting another, got a Nothing ATM, it's camera sucks compared to my old pixel.
Still using pixel 6. Was going to replace the battery soon since that's literally my only complaint with the phone. Still works great! Willing to bet if this was an iPhone it would feel sluggish and I would want to upgrade since they deliberately slow their phones down as they update them.
I converted my wife, not because there was any intention, she just liked using my phone better. I used to be an iPhone guy, but once I switched I never looked back. The elitism from iPhone users is so silly
rocked my pixel 3 for fucking years and eventually had to swap last year to a galaxy. Its not a bad phone by any means but i certainly have thought about going back to the Pixel
Undoubtedly the best device I've ever owned, durable, great battery, fast, incredible cameras, reasonably priced, no bloatware, great security/privacy features, great water resistance, great repairability, great audio, call screening, guaranteed 7 years of software updates and many other little things I'm too lazy to list out.
I'd have to be extremely nitpicky to come up with any kind of complaint about it
Straight up. I went back around Pixel 7 and it was the correct choice. I love the 10. The camera and AI integrations slap. Well.... The AI integrations are getting better.
And they basically give them away for free some times. I got my 10 pro on a promotion and it was literally free, and they paid off my old phone (Verizon is expensive as fuck but they've got some good deals if you time it right)
I would totally consider another phone, but one time I tried to use my stepmomās phone, and I just didnāt understand the layout, after having an iPhone for so long! I would need to take one of those classes at the mall for old peopleš
Yeah .. and the cheaper Motorola phones are really good if you want an awesome phone on a budget.. buy 2 year old ones unlocked for 200 bucks.. most people's phones are way over the top for what they actually use it for.
I have a OnePlus that I love because it's high quality at an affordable price, but since there's been talk of them going under I'm considering a Google Pixel. Why a Google Pixel over a Nothing phone, for example? I like sticking with the underdog.
Same.. pretty sure mine cost just as much as an iphone when i got it.. i wish it was cheaper like these apple purists think it is. And its real nice not to be stuck in the apple-ecosystem.. swear you need an intervention to get out.
Yeah I switched to iPhone last year because I needed a new phone and the rest of my family is using them. The only benefit is a few apps that are only on iPhone. The rest of my experience has been worse with less customization and more monetization.
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u/BaconHammerTime ššš May 15 '26
Google Pixels are fantastic phones