Some early pre-orders for the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are already arriving in our readers' hands, and though the shipping dates have slipped out pretty far now, more and more of you will be able to enjoy the phones with each passing day. As you sit down to play with them, digging into the settings menu to dial things in just right, we've got a few tips of our own that can help make the best of the experience, fixing frustrations we ran into and enabling features that aren't on by default.

You don't have to turn all these things on, but some of them are pretty handy if you're used to the way things used to be on your old phone, but there are a few handy features in Google's flavor of Android 12 that just aren't turned on by default you should be aware of.

1. Enable icon theming

One of the coolest features for Android 12 on Google's Pixels is the dynamic theming system that makes the new Material You look shine. But, one of the best things about it is actually disabled by default, and you'll have to manually flip it on to experience it. If you navigate to Wallpaper & style (either via Settings -> Wallpaper & Style or by long-pressing in an empty area of the home screen and selecting the option), there's a feature called "themed icons," which is currently in beta and disabled by default. When it's turned on, though, some system and Google-made apps will change their icon theme to match your Material You system theme.

This feature won't work for almost all third-party apps (the APIs required may actually still be undocumented, though some developers like Inware's Dylan Rousell got it working). For some of you, a mix of perfectly matched icons with defaults could be more frustrating than just leaving things as they are, but the feature it also tints the Pixel Launcher's Google search bar and its icons to match. We think it's fun, and it's worth turning on.

2. Increase the launcher grid size

I don't know why, and we thought it was a bug when we ran into it during the developer previews and betas, but Google has switched the default grid size for the Pixel launcher to 4x5 rather than 5x5 as it was before. That doesn't just mean that app icons and their labels are huge; it also limits how you can place widgets. Many of Google's snazzy new ones are resizeable, and having a little extra granularity when it comes to spacing can help you come up with a nicer layout.

In Wallpaper & style, the same place as the setting above (Settings -> Wallpaper & Style or long-pressing in an empty area of the home screen), you can tap "app grid" and select the 5x5 option. If you had things set up under the 4x5 sizing, they might be a bit shuffled when you go back to your home screen, but it's easy enough to rearrange them and take advantage of the extra precision.

Everyone at Android Police who has picked up one of the new phones has found the new, bloated look odd, especially since prior Pixels defaulted to 5x5 on Android 11. Thankfully, you can flip it back to a less literally shortsighted appearance.

3. Bubbles: No. Snoozing: Yes.

I hate bubble notifications, period, as do many of our readers. (Even Google is moving away from them.) And if you really, really cant stand them, there's actually a system setting to just turn them off. It may not always work, as in the case of Google's Dialer app, but it will disable even the option when managing an app's notification settings to selectively enable them.

Disable bubbles and the options for them are just gone in app notification settings.

Just go to Settings -> Notifications -> Bubbles, toggle that sucker off, and you shouldn't see another bubble again. If you or an app try to enable bubble notifications after doing that, you'll even be prompted a second time to turn it back on, reminding you that the setting is disabled at a system level. Scorched earth, death to bubbles.

There's also an option in the same area to re-enable notification snoozing, and though it doesn't work with the same quarter-swipe that it used before, you'll see that alarm clock-like icon appear at the bottom right of expanded icons. Tap that, and you can snooze a notification to reappear later. If you treat your notifications like a to-do list (as I do), this restores that workflow.

4. Dial the screen in / desaturate

Out of the box, the Pixel 6 Pro ships with dark theme enabled, Night Light disabled, and an oversaturated color setting. I changed all three, but you should at least check out the options in Settings -> Display and decide what you like best.

Dark theme can be set to enable itself automatically at sunset so you can enjoy a brighter theme during the day and protect your eyes at night, and that's the setting I recommend and enjoy myself. However, you can also just entirely disable dark theme if you want.

Night Light tints the display redder, which is ostensibly better for your circadian rhythm and late-night phone use. Both the intensity of the effect and a schedule for it can be configured. I actually like to set Night Light to kick in after sunset (though that's still an option) at around an hour before my usual bedtime.

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Lastly, you have your color options, which adjust the saturation for the display. "Adaptive" is the default, but I find that "natural" is closer to a calibrated color space compared to other devices. You might think that's too muted, but it means photos and videos in more apps will look "correct" rather than overly colorful or excessively punchy. There's also a "boosted" setting that's sort of in the middle, but you should play with the options at least before you settle with something that might mess up how photos or videos look.

5. Enable notification history

The notification history feature dates back to Android 11, and it's pretty handy, showing a timeline of your recent notifications plus those you've snoozed (if you've enabled that feature above). However, it's not actually enabled by default — probably to protect your privacy in some way. We recommend that you turn it on, though, because it's great for tracking down apps that might be sending obtrusive notifications or to see something you might have inadvertently dismissed.

Just go to Settings -> Notifications -> Notification history and toggle that setting on. It won't retroactively populate with notifications prior to the time it was enabled (unless you have some currently snoozed), but it will keep track of things going forward and give you a fast way to check history if a notification disappears or you accidentally dismiss something later.

6. Make the power button control power again

With the Pixel 6 series and Android 12, Google changed things up so that the power button triggers the Assistant with a long press, like what Samsung, OnePlus, and Apple have done. Accessing the power menu now requires tapping the power button together with the volume up button. But if you aren't a fan of Google following all its friends by jumping off this particular bridge, you can turn the long-press Assistant off and go back to the way things used to be, with a long-press of the power button triggering the power menu.

This setting lives in Settings -> System -> Gestures -> Press and hold power button. It's a single toggle, and turning it off disables that long-press Assistant. However, we recommend you enable another method to access the Assistant to replace it.

That corner-in swipe we're used to using with the old navigation gesture schema is also disabled by default now, but it can be re-enabled in Settings -> System -> Gestures -> System navigation -> Gesture navigation with the settings cog icon on the right. Unfortunately, so far as we can tell, there's no way to enable the old long-press home Assistant functionality if you use three-button navigation.

If you're still waiting for your own to arrive, I hope all this talk of toggles isn't too tormenting. You can also check out our (frankly, effusive) reviews again for both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro while you wait (or grab one of the best Pixel 6 Pro cases). Given some of the delays certain retailers are experiencing, we hope you don't have to twiddle your thumbs for too long.

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