Google’s smartest Pixel 11 Pro feature is already driving me crazy

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I’ve only had the Pixel 11 Pro XL for a few days, and somehow that’s still been enough time for it to remind me why I’ve had trust issues with Pixels all year. I really do try to give these phones a fair shot. I look for the good stuff, I get excited about the new features, and every time, I hope this will finally be the Pixel that doesn’t make me question my life choices a few days in.

This time, HiLight is doing the damage. And the annoying part is that I actually love the idea. It reminds me of the notification LEDs we used to have back in the day. I was quite excited to play around with it on my Pixel 11 Pro XL because, honestly, I’ve missed having something like this on a phone. Then I actually tried using HiLight.

What should have been a simple bit of customization turned into a confusing mess of menus, favorite contacts, disappearing options, and me repeatedly wondering whether I was doing something wrong. Spoiler: I wasn’t. HiLight is a great idea, but right now it is an absolute mess.

First and foremost, my gripe with HiLight is simple: why is something this basic so complicated? I went in thinking I’d spend a couple of minutes assigning different colors to my friends and family. Instead, Google somehow turned it into a treasure hunt.

Naturally, I started in the Settings app. That’s where HiLight lives, and on my Pixel 11 Pro XL, it was already enabled by default. So far, so good. I assumed I’d open it, see my contacts, pick the people I wanted, choose their colors, and be done. That would make sense, right? Well, apparently not.

To customize a contact’s HiLight color, I have to leave Settings, open the Contacts app, find that person, and customize it from there. It works, sure, but why am I bouncing between two apps for something this simple? If I’m already in HiLight settings, why can’t I choose a contact there and get on with my day? That’s really all I want from this. HiLight should show my contacts right there in Settings and let me pick whoever I want. More importantly, I shouldn’t need instructions to figure out something as basic as customizing a color. And yes, I actually had to look it up before I could get it working.

To make sure this wasn’t a me problem, I handed the Pixel to my dad and asked him to set a custom color for one of the contacts. He’s comfortable with tech, but he couldn’t figure it out either. If both of us had to hunt for instructions, I’d say Google has made this harder than it needs to be. It might not bother everyone, but it has definitely frustrated me.