One of Google’s weirdest Pixel features is finally dead, and I’m going to seriously miss it

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When Google introduced an infrared thermometer on the Pixel 8 Pro , the reaction from the tech world, and me, was pretty dismissive. It felt like a strange, pandemic-era feature that arrived two years too late, squeezed into the phone for no reason other than “why not.” Now, with the Pixel 11 series, Google has quietly killed the temperature sensor, dropping it from its flagship hardware. Replacing it is Google’s new HiLight notification light , which someone might call equally gimmicky in implementation. But I digress.

It is easy to dismiss a smartphone thermometer as a useless gimmick. The space could have been better used for an IR blaster, a larger camera sensor, or even a bigger battery. But as someone who inadvertently ended up using it far more than I expected, I’m surprised to say I’m genuinely sad to see it go.

The Pixel thermometer was strange, for sure, but it was also one of the few recent phone features that solved real everyday problems in a way that software never can. As a fan of quirky hardware additions, I wish Google had kept it around.

I’ll be honest here – when the feature first arrived, Google did not exactly help its case. Early software builds required way too much user input to work. You’d have to select a material, such as plastic, metal, or fabric, to accurately calibrate the readings before taking a measurement. Moreover, human body temperature measurement simply didn’t work at launch because the feature shipped without regulatory approval.

I remember my first demo at Google’s office was quite literally checking how hot my coffee was. Cool. But I don’t need a thermometer for that. However, once Google got approval to use it for body temperature readings, the thermometer found a more practical purpose. Very specifically, I recall feeling low on energy while traveling and using the Pixel 10 Pro’s built-in thermometer to check my temperature. It wasn’t a life-and-death situation, but that one single moment convinced me that perhaps the feature wasn’t quite as gimmicky as I thought it was.

The usefulness did not stop there. The thermometer became a handy tool for quick checks around the house or outdoors. I’ve used the thermometer to check just how hot the road was during the summer heat before taking the dog out for a walk, or the temperature of a frying pan. Elsewhere, I’ve used it to double-check temperature readings of electronics and appliances that I thought were misbehaving. I wasn’t the only one. When Android Authority polled users to gauge how people were using the feature, we discovered many more interesting use cases than I’d have thought of.

It wasn’t a feature that got used too often, and if I really needed to, I could have pulled out my dedicated thermometer for the task. But when you needed it, having a thermometer built into the phone already in your pocket felt incredibly useful. I’m going to miss it.