{"id":491065,"date":"2026-02-22T01:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T01:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491065\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T01:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T01:25:14","slug":"3-default-pixel-apps-i-always-disable-right-on-the-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/491065\/","title":{"rendered":"3 default Pixel apps I always disable right on the spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the most part, Google’s Pixel-branded phones<\/a> and tablets ship with a clean, unadulterated flavor of the Android operating system. While far from a ‘stock’ Android Open Source Project<\/a> (AOSP) experience, Google does show restraint when it comes to in-box apps, interface design, and service pile-on. <\/p>\n

Putting aside carrier bloat, the Pixel’s app drawer<\/a> is remarkably lean in its factory state<\/a>, arguably even more so than even the iPhone (and certainly more so than just about every other mainstream Android out there). <\/p>\n

Even still, there are a few preinstalled Pixel applications that I tend to delete<\/a> or disable right after setup, as they simply don’t speak to me personally. Here are three apps in particular that didn’t survive past the first day upon unboxing my Pixel 10<\/a> late last year. <\/p>\n

Pixel Studio<\/p>\n

AI-generated art is pass\u00e9<\/p>\n

\"Pixel<\/p>\n

Much like how Apple incorporated Image Playground into the iPhone as a sandbox for AI-generated image production, the Google Pixel experience comes standard with Pixel Studio by default. I previously wrote about<\/a> how little real-world utility there is in Apple’s version of the concept, and, as far as I’m concerned, Google’s variant does little to sway me in the other direction. I do like that these apps use on-device processing to work without an active internet connection, but I simply don’t find the image results convincing enough to warrant having them take up space on my devices. <\/p>\n

Journal<\/p>\n

Third-party developers offer better alternatives<\/p>\n

\"Journal<\/p>\n

Google’s Journal app is a relatively recent addition to the default Pixel app stack, and it’s…fine. It does the essentials competently enough, with a clean user interface and an app lock function, but the fact of the matter is that better journaling apps exist<\/a> on the Google Play Store. Some of my favorite alternatives offer far more functionality out of the box, along with more robust cross-platform interoperability. Some of my current favorite options include:<\/p>\n

Google Maps<\/p>\n

Google’s other maps app does navigation better<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tOS \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tiOS, Android<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tBrand \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGoogle<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tPrice \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFree<\/p>\n

Google Maps is the most commonly used navigational app for traveling. The popular tool helps drivers, commuters, walkers, and cyclists get to where they are going.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Google Maps’ mobile interface has become a cluttered mess. In my opinion, it’s simply trying to do too much all at once, which ends up getting in the way of what’s truly important: getting from point A to point B in a timely manner. Personally, I still stick with (the Google-owned) Waze app<\/a> for navigational purposes, primarily because of its superior real-time updates, as well as it’s charming, personality-driven user interface design. The moment I learned I could use Sonic the Hedgehog<\/a> as my driving sidekick on Waze, I threw Google Maps out the window of my car. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the most part, Google’s Pixel-branded phones and tablets ship with a clean, unadulterated flavor of the Android…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[49,48,190,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-491065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}