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One of the best parts of owning a Pixel phone is the speed at which Google adds new features and updates — the most substantial of which are the quarterly Feature Drops. The March Pixel Feature Drop has a bunch of new features, but one that may have slipped by you is the addition of AI-generated system icons.
Typically, users can't change the system icons on Pixel phones without a custom launcher and icon pack, but the new update finally gives you an alternative to this. In addition to the stock Pixel launcher's barebones icon options, Google has added the ability to "create" new icon packs using generative AI. Though this may not be quite as exciting as it sounds.
Article continues belowHow to use Pixel's AI-generated icons
1. Open the Wallpapers & Style menu
Press and touch on the home screen, then select Wallpapers and style. Swipe over to the Home Screen tab and tap the Icons option towards the bottom of the list.
2. Open the Create menu
Tap the Create option on the lower right, and select one of the styles you like.
3. Download your custom icon style
Once you've selected a style, tap I agree when the terms of service message shows up on screen. From there, tap Download and wait for the process to complete
4. Apply the custom icons
When brought back to the Icons menu, select the Custom option and click Apply.
5. Customize the different styles
When brought back to the Icons menu, select the Custom option and click Apply. You can also customize some of the styles for a slightly different look than Google will offer.
Scribbles offers color options related to your wallpaper and the different colors Pixel phones have been available in — including gray, porcelain, obsidian, moonstone and jade.
Easel offers a bunch of themed color palettes, including jade, berry, sunset, denim, primary and "bold, luminous."
Treasure is only available in gold, but it gives you the choice of a light or dark background.
6. Change individual icon's artwork
Once you have downloaded your custom icons, you can offer some feedback and replace any options you find particularly distasteful.
Simply choose the style from the top of the page, find the icon in question, before pressing and holding for a second. Once you release, a small list will appear with the Create a new style option.
This will refresh that individual icon, and offer up something new. Repeating this also lets you undo your last change, meaning the previous option isn't lost forever.
The problem with Pixel's AI-generated icons
Google does offer several different stylistic options for those who want to use AI-generated icons, but it isn't really enough. Had these icon packs been developed by human artists, you can understand why there would be a firm physical limit on how many Google could actually include. But when AI is doing all of that for you, and only when prompted by the user, why not offer something a little more robust?
It's not as though Google's AI models aren't equipped to understand user prompts, since prompt-based functionality has been employed across Pixel and other Android phones in recent years. Considering how ugly some of these AI-generated icons actually are, having a prompt-based system would help offer something for almost everyone.
One thing I have noticed online is that a lot of the popular app icons have consistent default designs for everyone. Chrome, the camera, WhatsApp, and so on all look more or less the same. So these designs are not actually being generated by the user unless they explicitly ask for something else.
If I were to speculate, I would guess this was to "lighten the load," so to speak, and make sure Pixel phones aren't being asked to generate custom, unique icons for every single app on your phone. So the actual generation is only being done for apps that Google hasn't accounted for.
That way, your Pixel doesn't get stuck in a slow, performance-heavy process that could affect other phone functions. So it may just be that Google has only offered a limited number of styles to avoid overloading your phones.
Though if you think about it another way, rolling out the same AI-generated icons to everyone is no different from creating your own custom pack of app icons. The only difference is that you cut out the cost of having a human being make them from scratch. That seems like some outrageous penny-pinching from a company worth trillions of dollars.
Bottom line
The main problem with third-party icon packs is that they can't include icons for every possible app you may have installed. They may be able to offer alternatives for common app staples like Chrome, Gmail, Instagram, or other hugely popular platforms, but given the thousands of apps that are available on Android, there's no way any single developer can account for each one.
Still, Google could have tackled this feature in a very different way. One of the things I always liked about Android was that you had a lot more choice in how you customize your phone.
With Apple's advances in this area, that's not necessarily the case anymore, but the ability to create your own custom app icons with AI prompts could have helped Android and Pixel phones stand out. At the very least, it would mean you're not shoehorned into using the designs Google says you can use.
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