I didn't expect Pixel VIPs to impress me much, but now I can't stop using it

Pixel VIPs has been around for some time, but the feature’s recent redesign brought renewed attention to it. Curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to finally try it out, even though I wasn’t quite sold on the feature’s offerings.

I expected to set Pixel VIPs up and quickly forget about it. After all, there are already ways to replicate some of its most important features on Android. But after using it for the last two weeks, I find myself checking it every day.

Pixel VIPs keeps my important contacts in one place

The power in Pixel VIPs is not that it allows you to identify your most important contacts, but that it creates a hub from which you can easily access updates, messages, local information, and other details. It does this by adding a widget to your home screen that features those you have added as VIPs.

Adding someone to your VIPs automatically adds them to your Favorites in the Google Contacts app. This means that they automatically bypass Do Not Disturb. However, there are also other perks that come with using VIPs.

The feature creates a small hub page that includes details like the person’s local weather and time, as well as your last message to each other. If you enable location sharing, you can also see the person’s live location on this hub page. There is also a notes section where you can add ideas like what to get them for their birthday or activities you can do together. You can also add their birthday so that you receive a countdown and reminder for the day when it’s near.

This hub is what sets Pixel VIPs apart. In your Contacts app and even in WhatsApp, setting your Favorites still results in messages and updates getting lost between the bloat. Location sharing on Android without Pixel VIPs requires Google Maps, Find Hub, or another app, which makes it less intuitive to check that your loved one is doing okay when switching between tasks.

VIPs also provides a central location that you can use to store important details like addresses and birthdays. If you just want a general idea of the weather and time where your contact lives, then you can simply add their suburb.

I didn’t expect to love the feature so much until I tried it

I often find myself trying out Android features and quickly losing interest, but so far, Pixel VIPs has stuck. Part of this is because of the way that it helps me centralize disparate pieces of information around one contact. For example, I wanted to come up with gift ideas for my boyfriend’s birthday, and VIPs was the perfect place to store them.

But where it really came in handy was with the location sharing feature. My parents are currently on a road trip where they’re halfway across the country. Their last road trip didn’t go so well, with their car breaking down in the middle of nowhere. When I started using Pixel VIPs, I asked my mom to share her location with me until they’re back home. My parents also didn’t need a Pixel device for the feature to work.

Now, when I want to see that they’re still doing okay, I check my mom’s page in Pixel VIPs. For the past few days, this has allowed me to see the last time my mom’s phone pinged the service, where she is (safely at the resort where they’re staying or out for an excursion in the nearby town). It also allowed me to see when my parents switched from one resort to another as they drove further east.

This has given me peace of mind without requiring my mom to constantly update me. Because the widget is front-and-center on my home screen, I also remember to check it. This makes it more effective than general Find Hub tracking in my case. Between general life stress and my own forgetfulness, I often forget to check in with my loved ones as often as I would like. But Pixel VIPs has managed to make me more mindful about making sure I stay updated.

I just wish they didn’t get rid of activity suggestions

I started using Pixel VIPs as the redesign was rolling out. This meant that I got a glimpse of its activity suggestions feature just before it was removed. While these activity suggestions weren’t developed to their full potential, I wish that Google had improved upon the feature rather than removing it completely.

This was actually one of the features that would have been the most useful to me. I’m pretty good at remembering my closest contact’s birthdays (or they’re already in my calendar). Notes can be helpful, but they’re currently a bit disorganized.

But whether it comes to my friends or my parents, when they visit, I often need to find things to do together. This involves searching through websites that cover local events, trawling through Instagram to see what local markets are happening, or using a search engine to try to find local restaurants we can visit that suit everybody’s dietary preferences.

I was hoping that the activity suggestions could provide a new way to discover local events, especially those in neighborhoods I’m less familiar with. However, now that it’s gone, Pixel VIPs has lost this promising use case.

Despite this, I’ve enjoyed using Pixel VIPs since setting it up. It has surprised me with how effective a hub interface can be in keeping me up-to-date with my important contacts. If you have a Pixel phone and haven’t tried it, I recommend giving it a go. It might surprise you, too. I’m also hoping that Google continues to improve the feature so that it becomes even more useful.