Survey confirms the 'hidden' part of this Pixel hidden gem

Google first introduced a seamless way to give some of your favorite contacts elevated importance and permissions with the June 2025 Pixel Feature Drop. Called Pixel VIPs, the feature essentially let you give some contacts a spot on your home screen through a dedicated widget. Fast forward to last month, and Google rolled out improvements with Pixel VIPs 2.0. However, despite the upgrade, a large portion of our users don’t even know this exists at all.

We recently ran a poll asking our users whether they use Pixel VIPs, and a whopping majority of 1,545 respondents said they’ve never heard of the feature.

If you’re a non-Pixel Android user, that answer is understandable. If you’re a Samsung or OnePlus user, there’s little reason for you to care about something that’s Pixel-exclusive. Still, considering that Pixel VIPs has been out for well over a year now, we were expecting the results to look a little different.

Out of the 1,545 votes, a staggering 79% (1,214 respondents) said they had never heard of the feature. Only 7% (107 votes) said they use it all the time, while 14% (224 respondents) said they’d give it a shot now. That’s essentially 93% of respondents who either weren’t aware of Pixel VIPs or hadn’t tried it out yet.

One possible reason behind the low usage is that Google hasn’t exactly made this easy to stumble upon. You can either set VIPs via the Contacts app, or dig through the home screen’s widget picker to find the dedicated Pixel VIPs widget. Both of those routes, however, need you to already know what you’re looking for.

There’s a lot to like about the feature, and with the improvements launched last month, it makes sense that a portion of respondents said they’d try out Pixel VIPs. For reference, the widget now highlights dedicated call and message buttons directly above each contact, while tapping a contact card now opens a full-screen layout with Google’s Material 3 Expressive design. Additionally, there are now glanceable notification badges for your VIPs directly inside the widget, making it easier to see when you’ve missed a call or received a message from someone important, even after you’ve cleared your Pixel’s notification shade.

Elsewhere, if a VIP contact has chosen to share their location with you, their real-time whereabouts will also appear here, alongside the time and weather in their location.

If that sounds interesting, and you have an up-to-date Pixel device, setting up Pixel VIPs is simple:

1. Tap and hold an empty area on your Pixel’s home screen and select Widgets.
2. Type “VIP” in the search bar and select the VIPs widget under the Contacts section.
3. Add the widget to your home screen.
4. If you’re setting it up for the first time, you’ll see the Add your VIPs option.
5. Tap it, and you’ll be taken to a page that shows your contacts alongside suggested people.
6. Select the contacts you want to add to Pixel VIPs.

That’s pretty much it. Once set up, you’ll be able to use the widget to keep track of VIP contacts, their calls, messages, and other important connected information.