![\"pixel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pixel-11-pro-xl-hilight.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
\n Credit:\u00a0Robin John \/ MakeUseOf<\/p>\n
The notification LED has made an exciting return on the Pixel 11 Pro series with a feature called HiLight, which is a customizable notification light near the camera that can alert you when certain contacts are trying to contact you with a glowing light and the color of your choosing. It’s an interesting but limited feature.<\/p>\n
There’s a way to bring similar functionality to older Androids with an app called aodNotify. While it’s not as seamless as HiLight, it does indeed bring custom-color lighting effects to your AOD so that you can easily tell what kind of notifications you have, and from whom, with just a quick glance. In a lot of ways, it’s much more powerful than HiLight on the Pixel 11 Pro.<\/p>\n
Pixel 11 Pro’s HiLight is a notification beacon<\/p>\n
It lets you see what’s happening on your phone without turning it on<\/p>\n
\n Credit:\u00a0Robin John \/ MakeUseOf<\/p>\n
Instead of a temperature sensor, this year’s Pro Pixels get a light called HiLight. It does two things. First, it shows the status of Gemini if it’s working on your behalf as an agent when your phone is off. <\/p>\n
But the second and more interesting use of HiLight is as a notification LED that will let you see what types of notifications you have waiting just by the color of the light on a starred per-contact basis, which is customizable. You can pick one of five colors, so you can see the potential: imagine seeing a red light when your wife texts, or an orange light when your dad calls.<\/p>\n
It’s an incredibly useful tool and can also save battery so that you can know what’s going on with your phone without ever turning it on. Of course, HiLight requires that your phone is face down to be able to see the LED.<\/p>\n
There’s an app for that<\/p>\n
![\"aodnotify](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/radius3-1.jpeg\")
\n Credit:\u00a0Brandon \/ MUO<\/p>\n
AodNotify uses your screen’s always on display (AOD) to indicate the status of notifications with either a glowing colored ring around your screen, or with a circular indicator around your camera cut out.<\/p>\n
While AOD is helpful, it doesn’t tell you the what and whom of your notifications from across the room. This app solves that.<\/p>\n
You can specify which apps trigger the notification light (and if you pay for the upgrade you can specify different colors per-app and per-contact), but the app requires you run AOD all the time for it to work right. It’s not exactly the same as HiLight, but it has the same idea. There are two versions of the app: one for Samsung phones, and one for everything else.<\/p>\n
Get similar functionality on your older Android<\/p>\n
![\"aodnotify](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/position2.jpeg\")
\n Credit:\u00a0Brandon \/ MUO<\/p>\n
I tested aodNotify (which is sometimes just called “Notification light”) on both my Pixel 10 Pro and my older Galaxy S22, and both worked as advertised (the app for Samsung phones is different as mentioned).<\/p>\n
The Pro version does much more<\/p>\n
![\"aodnotify](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pro.jpeg\")
\n Credit:\u00a0Brandon \/ MUO<\/p>\n
I tested the free version of aodNotify, but many key features sit behind a paywall (the best value is a one-time fee of $6.99). To name a few limitations, you can’t set notifications per contact, you are limited to only the camera edge and screen edge lighting effects (the upgrade adds an LED dot effect), you can’t use stamina mode which only shows the indicator at certain intervals, and more. <\/p>\n
But without paying, you can still use the app with the two lighting effects, and you can still customize the colors on a per-app basis. For example, I set Gmail to be red, and Slack to be yellow. <\/p>\n
But it’s not exactly the same as HiLight<\/p>\n
And there are some major caveats<\/p>\n
There are numerous caveats when using aodNotify to get it to work right. Note that this is the opposite of HiLight: because HiLight is a light on the back of the phone, you set the Pixel face down. aodNotify lights up your screen, so if you want to see it with the display off, the phone has to be face up, with AOD on. Also, the app requires a bunch of app permissions<\/a> to be able to monitor your notifications: display over other apps (draw on screen), accessibility service (used to draw visual floating overlays), notifications access, and more.<\/p>\n On the bright side, the app does not need internet access, nor does it have any ads (besides the nudges to upgrade to Pro for extra features).<\/p>\n And it’s not easy to get the light positioned just right<\/p>\n By far one of the most frustrating aspects of this app is that you have to manually position the camera edge lighting effect, or it will look misaligned like the above. The app gives you the ability to move the effect along the X and Y axis, which after a bunch of tweaking you can get to look pretty good. The edge lighting feature does a better job at properly aligning with your screen’s edge, and I’d recommend just using that feature.<\/p>\n So is aodNotify worth it?<\/p>\n I stuck with the free version of this app because with AOD on most phones these days (which can be a battery drain<\/a>), you can just be informed of your notifications and missed messages by glancing at your always-on-display. And the fact that you need AOD anyway for this app to work means that there are really not many use cases where someone would actually want to pay for this unless you wanted a more glanceable way to see the status of your notifications (like if your phone is across the room).<\/p>\n![\"aodnotify](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/position.jpeg\")
\n Credit:\u00a0Brandon \/ MUO<\/p>\n
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