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Google’s At a Glance feature never really debuted on most Android devices. One reason for this is that Google has focused most of its efforts on Pixel devices. Where non-Pixel devices only get a slimmed-down version of the app, Pixel owners have full access to all the features found in At a Glance.
But what is at a glance?
On your Android home screen, you should see a widget near the top that displays the time, weather, and perhaps your upcoming Google Calendar events.
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But what if you could present even more information within that widget? If you have a Pixel phone, this may be true. You can enable/disable any of the following options:
- earthquake warning
- package delivery
- ride sharing
- sleep time
- Health
- security check
- time and stopwatch
- connected devices
- door bell
- flashlight
- commute
- time to leave
- Season
- air quality
- Alert
- Travel
- the upcoming
- work profile
- food and household orders
- cross-device timer
Obviously, not every one of these options will apply. For example, where I live, there is no requirement for earthquake alerts. Maybe a tornado warning would be good.
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You can also enable/disable sensitive notifications (to prevent sensitive information from being displayed at a glance) and Location History, and set your home and work locations.
Once you’ve experienced how easy Glance can be, you’ll wonder how you ever got away without customizing it all this time.
So, how do you customize the look on a Pixel device? It’s actually quite easy. let me show you.
Customize Pixel at a glance
what you’ll need: All you need is a Google Pixel device for this. That was paired with the Pixel 3 at a glance, so most Pixel owners should be good to go.
The first thing you should do is unlock your Android phone.
Long-press the widget at a glance, which will most likely display the weather and your current or upcoming Google Calendar events. From the resulting popup menu, tap Customize.
I rely on At a Glance daily. Jack Wallen/ZDNet
On the next page, tap on the gear icon associated with At a Glance.
You can also enable/disable notification dots from this section. Jack Wallen/ZDNet
If you’re concerned about privacy, you might want to disable sensitive content for a glance. To do this, tap on Sensitive content. In the resulting page, you can tap the On/Off slider for sensitive notifications until it’s in the Off position.
If you don’t want to show sensitive content at a glance, you might want to disable it. Jack Wallen/ZDNet
Go back to the At a Glance page and then scroll through the different lists and enable or disable them as needed. You’ll also see a list at the bottom of this page for “See more features”. After you see the first list, tap on that entry.
You will find many options here to enable or disable. Jack Wallen/ZDNet
On the resulting page, you can access more customizations, such as your location history, home and work locations, traffic, severe weather alerts, and more.
At a glance there should be a lot more configuration. Jack Wallen/ZDNet
I suggest you read each section of the customization at a glance and enable the features you want and disable the features you don’t need. You’ll probably find that some of the information just doesn’t apply to you and there’s no reason to clutter up widgets with unnecessary data.
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And everything you need to know about customizing the Pixel At a Glance feature. Hopefully, someday, Google will add at a glance all Android versions running on non-Pixel devices. Until then, if this is a feature you’d like to get, it might be time to migrate to a Pixel phone.
Jack Wallen: Here’s How…
