A PREFERABLE POWER-BUTTON PATTERN

power as much as possible. But with the flip of one switch, the phone can monitor the way you use the device over time and then activate Battery Saver based on your specific personal routine – in other words, when it seems likely you’ll run out of power before you next top off, based on your typical phoneusing habits.

It’s a more customized and personal approach, and it has the potential to make your Pixel power management much more effective.

To enable it:

1. Go back into your system settings.

2. Tap ‘Battery’, then ‘Battery Saver’.

3. Next, tap ‘Set a schedule’ and tap the line that says ‘Based on your routine’.

While you’re there, back out to the main Battery Saver menu and tap ‘Extreme Battery Saver’, then make sure that it’s set to ‘Ask every time’. That’ll cause your phone to prompt you anytime the Battery Saver mode gets activated and ask if you want to use Extreme Battery Saver instead – which limits what your phone’s able to do even more than the standard Battery Saver but also stretches your power out even longer when you’re really desperate to make it through a long day.

6.

Google’s Pixel phones recently started a quirky habit of repurposing the physical power button to act as a shortcut for summoning Google Assistant.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Assistant’s fantastic. And it can do some extraordinarily useful stuff. But you’ve got no shortage of ways to activate Assistant. Having the phone’s power button pull up Assistant instead of loading the power menu is pretty superfluous and can turn irksome fast.

Here’s how to turn your Pixel’s power button back into an actual power button:

1. In your system settings, select ‘System’, then ‘Gestures’.

2. Tap the ‘Press and hold power button’.

3. Flip off the switch next to ‘Hold for Assistant’.

4. Flip off that switch once more.

And there you have it: pressing and holding that power button will now pull up your Pixel’s power menu and make it easy for you to shut down or restart your phone, as well as enter its Lockdown mode or summon emergency services.