PSA: This overlooked Pixel feature can save you from missed calls and blaring ringtones

If you have ever missed an important call because your Pixel was stuck on vibrate or if you’ve ever been publicly embarrassed by your blaring phone, you’re not alone. A Redditor recently shared how they solved this exact problem using a built-in Pixel feature most of us tend to overlook.

Called Rules, the feature has been around for a while, but many Pixel owners, including yours truly, never touch it. Rules let you automate changes to your phone’s audio state based on either location or Wi-Fi.

In the Reddit post, the user set up a simple automation that ensures their phone switches to vibrate mode when they are connected to their home Wi-Fi network and back to a loud ringer when they are off the Wi-Fi, ensuring they don’t miss any calls when they are out of their house.

You can also set up a rule to do the opposite; change your phone to ring when you’re at home and silent or vibrate when you’re out. Of course, you can also change the audio state of your Pixel for other things, like when you’re at the gym or when you’re at work.

You can set Rules for Pixel by heading to Settings > System > Rules. From there, you can add custom rules tied to Wi-Fi networks or specific locations. Keep in mind that location and Wi-Fi-based rules require continuous location access to work. There’s also an “Automatically suggest rules” toggle, which lets your Pixel recommend automations based on how you change settings in different places. You can even enable notifications so you’ll know when a rule kicks in.

That said, the Pixel Rules feature isn’t perfect. Redditors point out that it’s still limited compared to Samsung’s Routines, and it’s true. Samsung’s counterpart allows for a lot more customization using “if this, then that” scenarios based on time, location, or device status. You can customize settings such as muting sounds, enabling Do Not Disturb, connecting to Wi-Fi, adjusting screen brightness, or opening specific apps. Google’s Rules feature doesn’t give you this level of personalization.

Redditors say they would love to use Rules to adjust DNS and VPN settings or even disable hotspot automatically. Of course, you can always use third-party apps like Tasker for these types of automations and more. But it would be nice to see Google expand the feature so users don’t need to rely on extra apps.