I tested the Pixel Vips functionality and I am not impressed

I was so excited to try one of the headliners of Google’s latest drop of pixels. “Was” is the keyword here, unfortunately. One of the largest features, in evidence throughout the marketing of this update, is Pixel Vips, a promised feature of helping you follow those who care as much in the most practical way. I tried this kind of relationship management application in the past, and I was excited at the idea of a lighter approach which is also more deeply integrated into my device. My experience, however, was not up to the promise.

Where is the widget?

First of all, there was confusion around the search for functionality. Like the Pixel screenshots and the Pixel Studio, which both arrived last year, VIPS seemed to be a new exclusive application of pixels. Well, it is and that is not the case. Technically, it is an autonomous APK, but it does not appear like its own icon in the launcher. Instead, this is a widget in the contacts application and an extension of the protruding tabs that you can already use. I have always found this tab useful to see the birthdays to come among my contacts. Although the new VIPS widget looks like a perfect extension of this tab, it was simply not specified where to find it. Maybe I was too impatient to try it and I missed something in the details of the ad, but I saw others on the web which were just as confused.

As for the widget itself, well, it’s … disappointing. I want to like this feature, I really do it, and there are really useful pieces that we will talk about in a moment, but if I will put a widget on my home screen, I want it to be beautiful. When Google expresses a new feature in all its marketing, I expect it to have an excellent design. But let’s be real: pixel widgets need work.

Barely a few months ago, Google seemed ready for a renaissance of the widget on Android. In March, he presented Widget quality levelsApparently recognizing the need for widget improvements on this platform. So when I saw a widget presented in the announcements for a whole new update, I was impatient to try it to see if he met this new High Bar.

My excitement was encountered by reality after updating my phone. The first problem that comes out is the design of the vip widget itself. This is probably the most disappointing part of all. After the newly announced equipment of Google has announced expressive, in addition to the recent announcements on the quality of the widget, I hoped for a carefully designed widget. Instead, I met another widget that I would hesitate to keep my second or third screen, and even less on my home screen.

I can think of many ways to improve the VIP widget as it is. The padding comes to my mind, for example. You can define the widget to be many different sizes, but none offers an excellent spacing. If you choose the smallest widget size, everything seems tight together, but if you choose a large widget, there is so much open space that it feels wasted. With expressive equipment 3, design is supposed to be daring and avant-garde, but it looks like most widgets on Android, most of whom seem archaic.

Just for fun – and I am in no way a professional designer – I fired Figma and I tried to make fun of my vision of a pixel vips widget. In the smaller widget, for example, why not exclude names and display larger photos of your VIPs with larger TAP targets? I will go out on a member and guess that you know someone’s face without their name listed below if you consider them VIP enough to be here. Or in the largest widget, why not enlarge VIP photos, almost a photo frame to present your most important people? I’m sure Google’s professional designers could do better than my models, but you get the point.

Barebons notes in the age of AI (or Google Keep Age!)

Design separately, there are still basic features that seem half complete – again, not well for a headliner feature! Take, for example, the notes section. Each VIP gets a section of its profile dedicated to small notes that could help you remember things about the recent conversations you have had or on the major events they could have mentioned. This is a manual process, of course, because you have to enter the notes yourself; There are no AI suggestions based on your conversations (again?), But I always find the idea useful. I used it recently after a phone call with my brother. He told me when he planned to close his purchase at home, and I wanted to remember the date so that I could make sure to register at that time.

This section of notes is a super practical and useful place to store this little information, but it does not seem to be finished. The notes are the most rudimentary form of notes that I have seen in a modern application. Why can’t I define a reminder for a note? Why can’t I archive the note to keep, in case I want to see it later, but not face it? You can only delete a note. Why can’t I search or mark these notes? There is no organizational tool to find. Without that, you could be better used by Google Keep or tasks to store this type of information.

A good start, but not yet worthy of my home screen

There is a lot to love with Pixel Vips, but there is much more potential than I hope to be added in a future update. I love you get a leading reminder for the coming birthday of a VIP, with a cupcake emoji on the widget and a colored banner in the full screen profile. I like to see my most recent interactions with my favorite contacts, although I hope they will add other messaging sources in the future; Currently, only Google Phone, Google Messages and WhatsApp are displayed here. If you enter the address of a VIP or if you already share the location in Find Hub, their current location is displayed in their VIP profile, as well as the weather and time in their city. The notes, as I wrote above, have the potential to be even better with the local AI analysis of shared messages, personalized reminders and integration with other Google notes taking applications.

The last section of the application is “things to do together”. You can enter your preferences for the activities you like to do with the VIP, and the application will start to recommend things. So far, mine has only recommended movies and television shows, and it does not seem very personalized. I hope that this feature evolves towards a more personalized recommendation system in the future, perhaps using an analysis on the devices of your interactions, or on the basis of a Google Maps shared list or something like that. I think there are ways to build these suggestions with a confidentiality approach, and I would like to see Google do more here. For the moment, it is not very useful at all, but as it is at the bottom of the application, it is not too much on the way.

Pixel VIPS is only an example of a widget that needs work. As a person who lives several states far from many family members and friends, I am delighted with their potential to help me stay in touch with VIPs in my life, but Google and third party developers must put more emphasis on widgets if they hope to see a higher adoption rate among Android users.