I was so excited to try out one of the headlining features of Google’s latest Pixel Drop. “Was” is the keyword here, unfortunately. One of the biggest features, prominently displayed in all the marketing for this update, is Pixel VIPs, a feature promised to help you keep up with those you care about most in the most convenient way possible. I’ve tried out this sort of relationship management app in the past, and I was excited at the idea of a lighter-weight approach that’s also more deeply integrated into my device. My experience, though, didn’t live up to the promise.
Where’s the widget?
First, there was the confusion around finding the feature. Like Pixel Screenshots and Pixel Studio, which both arrived last year, VIPs appeared to be a new Pixel-exclusive app. Well, it is and it isn’t. Technically, it’s a standalone APK, but it doesn’t appear as its own icon in the launcher. Instead, it’s a widget in the Contacts app and an extension of the Highlights tab that you could already use. I always found this tab to be useful for seeing upcoming birthdays among my contacts. While the new VIPs widget feels like a perfect extension of this tab, it simply wasn’t made very clear where to find it. Maybe I was just too eager to try it out and missed something in the details of the announcement, but I saw others across the web who were equally as confused.