I've spent years defending Google's vision of a clean and unadulterated Android experience. However, the ecosystem now bears a closer resemblance to a velvet-lined cage than to an open platform, with upcoming changes such as restrictions on sideloaded apps. I use a Pixel 7 and always praised the stock OS for its design language and feature set, but I also forget how many of those features I love are silently enabled by well-integrated third-party apps, while the tech titan remains focused on AI tools and visual improvements in the OS. Meanwhile, other Android skins have improved tremendously, leaving the reference design in the dust.

Granted, Android has matured as a platform, but my personal experiences suggest the most transformative software for Pixel phones rarely carries Google's official seal of approval. These apps can catch up to​​​​​ niche features from Xiaomi's HyperOS and its likes. To proceed without compromising system security via a full bootloader unlock and root partition modification, the modern Android power user relies heavily on an application framework called Shizuku, and Wireless Debugging. Here are four apps that add features to Google's Pixel phones (and other Android devices) that the company could've added in the past decade.

Smartspacer

Take another hard look at At a Glance

The At a Glance widget sits atop the default Pixel Launcher home screen, hogging the entire width only to display Calendar updates, the weather, day, date, and time. It mocks power users by underutilizing its footprint if your daily workflow doesn't revolve around a relentless corporate schedule. It's based on Google's flawed assumption that every Android user lives in a Google Workspace Calendar.

Smartspacer is a masterful addition to the company's otherwise wasteful widget, designed by Kieron Quinn on GitHub. It retains At a Glance's visual aesthetic, but replaces Google’s rigid data feeds with highly customizable target fields, custom complications, and interactive notifications. I’ve configured mine to pull active, pinned notes from Google Keep and real-time transit metrics from Maps directly into the widget area.

It integrates so seamlessly with Google's design language that it resembles native functionality, and I've had people ask me how I get the Pixel to show me Maps in that widget area. The settings and triggers that determine when various items (called targets) appear are comprehensive, and the setup will leave any power user beaming. These targets are open-source, and you can audit their code at will. When you toss in a dedicated Tasker plugin for advanced contextual automation and a custom Lively Greeting to start your morning, you can personalize Google's dead widget and use it more efficiently.

Pixel IMS

The closest thing to modern-day jailbreaking, minus rooting

Carrier provisioning remains one of the darkest realities of modern smartphones. When you're buying an unlocked Pixel variant, I presume it will work globally across all networks without a hitch, but Google often relies on carrier-side whitelists to activate advanced network profiles. If your specific carrier or regional network hasn't jumped through the requisite certification loops, you could end up paying for quality-of-life cellular upgrades like Voice over LTE (VoLTE) or Voice over New Radio (VoNR/5G), without using them.

This artificial barrier frustrates many international travelers and technophiles who are stranded on legacy network protocols for no good reason other than Google's compliance woes. While my carrier didn't require manually forcing access to certain bands, testing Pixel IMS on my device brought me right back to the era of jailbreaking iPhones. Powered entirely by Shizuku’s elevated permission framework, this utility alters internal modem configuration files to force-enable VoLTE, VoNR, and advanced carrier-specific network calling profiles.

It completely bypasses the arbitrary carrier verification checks, forcing the underlying hardware to operate, nonetheless. If you're in a region where Google sells its devices but regional carriers lag behind in official validation, Pixel IMS can help you access essential cellular infrastructure without root. You'll need to redo this configuration after every update or reboot on Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3 and newer, but only once otherwise.

Batt

iPhone-style battery health metrics for Pixel

Continuing the theme of software that reminds me of the iPhone, battery health comes to mind. Google gave us access to the APIs to read this detailed info in Android 14, but subsequently withdrew it, as though power users were children who could not be trusted with hardware health diagnostics. The default battery sub-menu in the settings app gives you a vague, binary reassurance that everything is "fine," but the lithium-ion battery condition is a mix of several stats.

We need precise cycle counts, exact manufacturing dates, and real-time health percentages to make informed decisions about hardware lifecycles and planned replacements. Batt steps in to reveal these settings if you've installed Shizuku. It pulls data from the Android battery management system hidden in system dump logs. Accessing these without Google, needlessly simplifying assessments, helps when you plan to sell the device on the secondary market. Batt is also ridiculously simple to use, offering immense peace of mind for long-term device ownership and adding verifiable tangible value when it's finally time to trade up or resell.

Essentials

The grail for UI customization that dwarfs Material You

Saving the best for last, we've got an extensive personalization suite simply named Essentials. It satiates my craving for the stagnation in Google's Material You for Pixel, which has been around long enough that third-party Android skins from the likes of Xiaomi and OnePlus now outstrip it with superior notification lighting and gesture mechanics. The stock Pixel Launcher restricts the types of gestures and visual indicators you can deploy, but Essentials fixes that.

The app earns its reputation as the holy grail of rootless UI modification for the Pixel ecosystem. Operating safely within the Shizuku framework, Essentials injects custom bits into the System UI layer without modifying partitions. Options include a striking edge lighting effect and a tactical flashlight pulse for incoming notifications, replacing the boring, static ambient display defaults.

It also fixes one of my biggest daily usability gripes by enabling a flawless double-tap-to-lock-screen gesture right on the home screen. Combined with advanced network-level privacy management that lets you lock down your private DNS configurations on a granular, per-app basis, Essentials brings the absolute best power-user features of custom ROMs straight to an unrooted Pixel phone. Lest I forget, a bunch of these features are also available on other Android devices. You'll just need Shizuku for some of them.

Pixel UX stops just short of perfect

I don't suppose these apps will get any easier to sideload and run in the coming years, at least on Pixel phones. I prefer total agency over hardware performance and the everyday utility of my smartphone, and only a Pixel user can admit that Google's efforts for Android pale in comparison to its AI pursuits. For now, I can still sideload these apps outside the Play Store and eliminate the subtle software friction withholding a premium Pixel ownership experience. Google builds exceptional hardware and pairs it with brilliant machine learning tricks, but its current philosophy towards native user customization is far too conservative to satisfy power users. While we hope that changes, these amazing apps are the only crutch.