Google Pixel 11 Pro’s biggest HiLight upgrade yet will make it a little more useful in December

11 October 2026

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Despite all the hype Google built around the Pixel 11 Pro’s HiLight feature, it turned out to be a dud. In its current state, it acts as a glorified LED notification, which, worse, only works for two types of notifications. The next big Android 17 Pixel Feature Drop in December will make HiLight a bit more useful by adding support for one more notification type.

As of now, HiLight on the Pixel 11 Pro only glows when you are speaking with Gemini or receive a call from one of our favorite contacts. That’s it. There are no other customization options.

The latest Android 17 QPR2 Beta 6.1 for the Pixel 11 family adds notification support for “Messages from favorites.” As the name suggests, enabling this toggle lets HiLight glow when you receive a message from one of your favorite contacts. You can also assign a specific glow color to each favorite contact.

Admittedly, this is not a massive new addition that will suddenly make HiLight on the Pixel 11 Pro more useful. But it’s an improvement, and given HiLight’s limited functionality, any enhancement is welcome.

9to5Google says this HiLight upgrade only works with Google Messages for now. When you receive a new text, HiLight will glow twice. WhatsApp should also presumably work, as its incoming calls already trigger HiLight.

More control, but still plenty of room to improve

If your Pixel 11 Pro or 11 Pro Fold is on the Android 17 QPR2 Beta channel, install the latest build. Then, head over to Settings > System HiLight and enable the “Messages from favorites” toggle.

Alternatively, you can customize the alert from each contact’s profile in Google Contacts. The HiLight panel inside the app includes separate toggles for calls and messages, so you can choose which alerts trigger the light for that person.

Android 17 QPR2 lands in early December, so there are still a couple of months to go before you gain access to this HiLight upgrade on your Pixel 11 Pro.

If you can’t wait for Google to improve HiLight, try the third-party app HiLight Studio. It enables the Pixel 11 Pro’s fancy notification LED to work with any app. Plus, you can add a specific light effect to each app notification. There are also presets to set up apps in a group to speed up the whole process.