Pixel VIPs just got a major notification upgrade

Google launched the Pixel VIPs widget on Pixel phones earlier this year, giving you a quick way to view and communicate with your most important contacts. Now, Google has launched the November 2025 Pixel Drop, and it brings a couple of notable improvements to the VIPs widget.

Perhaps the most notable improvement is that message notifications from your VIPs are now prioritized by your phone. That’s a welcome upgrade, ensuring that texts from these contacts never get lost in the shuffle. It also complements the existing behavior, which allows VIP notifications to bypass Do Not Disturb.

The other upgrade is that Pixel VIPs will now have a crisis badge in the contacts widget “to keep you posted on critical alerts.” An accompanying image, seen below, shows a crisis badge on a VIP that indicates a flooding alert near their location. We’ve asked Google for more details on these badges.

We’re nevertheless glad to see Google giving some love to the Pixel VIPs widget. The widget also lets you easily share your location with loved ones, allows you to add contact-specific notes, and displays your last messages/calls. The Pixel VIPs widget and these latest upgrades are available on the Pixel 6 series and newer.

Otherwise, the November 2025 Pixel Drop also has a few other additions. This includes notification summaries, scam detection in popular apps, and a Remix feature in Google Messages.