One of the biggest selling points of Google Pixel phones has always been the software. Google’s approach has always been surprisingly simple: clean images, a handful of really useful features, and very little unnecessary clutter.
The good news is that you don’t need to buy a Pixel to enjoy most of what makes these phones special. Thanks to a handful of free apps, you can recreate much of the Pixel experience on almost any Android phone. This is how.
Lawnchair is a powerful pixel launcher that forms the basis
The essential interface layer
If you’re looking for a single app that will do most of the heavy lifting to transform your phone into a Pixel, look no further. garden chair.
This powerful launcher is designed to mirror the look and feel of the standard Pixel launcher, except it’s arguably even better thanks to the greater scope of customization it offers.
Like the Pixel software, Lawnchair is built on material youthe design foundation that transforms your entire system using a single color palette drawn from your wallpaper. To make the most of this feature, be sure to use one of the native Pixel wallpapers in combination with Lawnchair.
Lawnchair also adds Google’s persistent search bar at the bottom and, more importantly, the “At a Glance” widget at the top, which is a powerful contextual widget that displays time, date, weather, calendar appointments, and more.
Lawnchair’s “at-a-glance” integration is solid if you’re looking for a standard Pixel experience without messing with system permissions, but if you want to take it to the next level, you can install Smart space. It’s a more powerful and customizable update than the vanilla Pixel feature.
As a testament to Lawnchair’s success, the app has already had over 500,000 downloads on the Play Store, even though it is still technically in beta. As far as aesthetics go, Lawnchair is the closest you can get to transforming a phone into a Pixel without rooting or flashing a custom ROM.
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Google Tensor G4
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6.3-inch Actú screen
The Google Pixel 10a is a barely updated version of the Google Pixel 9a, with a slightly brighter display and an upgrade from Gorilla Glass 3 to Gorilla Glass 7i. Google has trimmed the remaining few millimeters of the camera bump, making it completely flat. Unlike previous versions of the Pixel a series, this model year does not share the same Tensor processor as the main Pixel 10.
Lawnicons adds Material You Pixel aesthetic to the launcher
Dynamic visual harmony in your app grid
As powerful as Lawnchair is, it falls a little short in one area in particular: icons. Although the app supports custom icons, it doesn’t actually come preloaded with any icon packs that allow you to take full advantage of the Material You themed icons on your home screen and app drawer. Unsurprisingly, the only app icons that follow the Pixel style by default are those from Google.
To address this somewhat thematic issue, the same team of developers behind Lawnchair has released the Lawns icon pack, which replaces the default icons with monochrome vector designs for almost all popular apps, such as Reddit, Discord, LinkedIn, and more.
Lawnicons can also automatically adapt to the dark mode and accent colors of your wallpaper, making it essential if you want to achieve a more uniform pixel-like look.
Core Google Apps (Phone, Messages, and Gboard)
Optimize your daily tools
Most Android phone brands already rely on Google’s core (in my opinion, superior) suite of apps: Phone, Google Messages (for SMS/MMS), and board. And for good reason. These apps are clean, intuitive, and feature the exclusive Material Design that makes them a fundamental part of the Pixel experience.
If your phone already uses Google apps for these functions, you don’t need to install anything. However, other brands (most notably Samsung) use their own proprietary alternatives. Samsung has already admitted defeat in the messaging space and is Replacing Samsung Messages with Google Messages in Julyso if you are at Samsung, that decision has already been made for you.
But for the keyboard and dialer, you should absolutely replace the Samsung (or whatever brand you’re using) versions with the Google ones to get a more Pixel-like experience.
Gcam side-loading for a Pixel-like camera experience on any phone
Bring Google Computational Photography to your sensor
Pixel phones are famous for their best cameras. But the magic behind those sharp, contrasty landscape photos with incredible dynamic range isn’t actually in the sensor, but in the software and processing that processes the photo after you touch the shutter button.
Fortunately, much of that famous Pixel look can be replicated using Google’s camera app, commonly known as “GCam.”
The problem is that you can’t just open the Play Store and download it. Generally you will need side load from a trusted third-party source.
Since the standard GCam is optimized for Pixel hardware, you’ll often also need a device-specific XML file to get the best results. Alternatively, you can find a GCam build that already includes a profile for your phone, but you should be careful about where you download APKs from to avoid potential security risks.
It’s also worth noting that you probably won’t be able to take advantage of your camera’s secondary lenses, such as the telephoto and ultra-wide angle lenses.
Taking advantage of the magnificent and exclusive forecast interface
There are many weather apps to choose from, but Pixel has one of the most useful and attractive weather apps and widgets out there. It’s an app you probably interact with regularly, so if you want your phone to look more like a Pixel, this is a must-have.
The Pixel Weather app uses large, bold fonts and highlighted alerts for current weather events, combined with simple but adorable forecast icons. It also includes useful information such as UV index, humidity, visibility and more. Best of all, there are no ads or other clutter that so many free weather apps suffer from.
Unfortunately, Google doesn’t make it easy to install the app on non-Pixel phones, so this is yet another APK you’ll have to find online and download. The good news is that it’s much easier to find and install the right version than GCam.
Switch to Google’s app catalog for an even more Pixel-like experience
Completing the transformation with stock system utilities
Now that you have the launcher, icons, main apps, camera and weather app, the only thing left is to install many other Google apps that can replace the proprietary ones on your phone. Again, many brands already rely on Google apps, but Samsung in particular comes with a relatively large number of first-party alternatives that you may want to swap for Google versions to get the best Pixel experience, some of which you may not even have thought about replacing.
This includes essential elements such as Clock, Calendar, Keep, Calculator, Health, Homeand even Files (although that could be best replaced by material files).
These apps all follow Google’s Material You design language, so they’ll feel right at home on your newly updated Pixel phone.
Enjoy the Pixel experience without buying a Pixel
If you’ve always wanted the colorful, fun yet clean interface of Pixel phones but don’t sell Pixel hardware, there are a surprising number of apps that can make that happen. While this list covers the core tweaks, there are also more advanced tweaks you can explore to make your phone look almost indistinguishable from a Pixel; maybe start researching The essentials on GitHub?
