Quickly access your favourite contacts with Pixel VIPs

Stay connected with your closest family and friends with Pixel VIPs. When you add people to Pixel VIPs and set up a home screen widget, you can have quick access to your recent interactions, their real-time location (if they share it), local updates, activity ideas and more.

Your Pixel VIPs can be on any iOS or Android device.

Important:

• This feature works if your device is a Pixel 6 or later, including Pixel Fold.
• Make sure that your apps, including Pixel Weather, WhatsApp and Google Contacts, are updated.

Add Pixel VIPs

You can add up to 16 people as your Pixel VIPs.

1. Open the Google Contacts app.
2. At the bottom right, tap Organise Pixel VIPs.
3. When prompted to add VIPs, tap the suggested contacts that you'd like to add.
   • To find all contacts, tap Add.
4. Grant the necessary permissions.

You can add a widget to your home screen for quick access to your Pixel VIPs. To add a widget:

1. Touch and hold an empty space from your home screen.
2. Tap Widgets Contacts.
3. Choose your preferred widget.

Tips:

• Your VIPs are automatically added to favourite contacts. This means that they can bypass 'Do Not Disturb'.
• You can swipe between VIPs or touch and hold the floating toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

Remove Pixel VIPs

• From the VIPs widget: Tap the Widget Settings Manage your VIPs.
• From the VIPs overlay: Tap Menu Manage your VIPs.
• From the individual contact in the Google Contacts app: Tap VIP tag Manage your VIPs.

Learn what you can do with Pixel VIPs

You can connect more with your contact with Pixel VIPs. When you set up the Pixel VIPs widget, you can use these features:

Location and safety

If you have location permissions turned on, you can use these features that use your VIP contact's location. Learn how to turn on location permissions.

• Location sharing: If they've shared it with you in Google Maps, you can find your VIPs' real-time location. Learn how to share your location in Google Maps.
  • Tip: Make sure that the email address used for location sharing is added to your VIPs' contact details.
• Local updates: Get the time and weather in your VIP’s location.
• Crisis alerts: Get crisis alerts directly on the widget.

Connection

You can get useful information about your contact at a glance, including:

• Last connection: You can find the last message or call with your VIPs on Google Messages or WhatsApp. To reconnect with your VIPs, you can tap the last message or the icons at the top to open your previous conversation.
• Significant dates: Remember important dates for your VIPs, like anniversaries or birthdays.
• Memo: Take some quick notes about your VIPs.
• Notifications: Easily find Messages and WhatsApp notifications for your VIPs directly on the widget.

Tips:

• When you include your VIP's email address, it doesn’t automatically enable location sharing. They'll need to share location with you by being logged in to Google Maps with that email.
• Location sharing is tied to an email address linked to Google Maps. You can manage location sharing settings in the Google Maps app.

What data Pixel VIPs accesses from other apps

Pixel VIPs accesses, organises and highlights information about your VIPs that other apps have already collected, such as:

• Pixel Contacts app: Information about your VIPs saved to your contacts, like phone numbers, birthdays, addresses, etc.
• Phone: Information about your last call with your VIPs, like who called and when.
• Android Messages: The last message from your messages with your VIPs.
• WhatsApp: The last message and last call shared with your VIPs.
• Google Maps:
  • Real-time location data of your VIPs if they agree to share their location data with you through Google Maps.
  • It also uses location data to determine the weather and time where your VIPs are currently located.

How Google uses data that you provide to Pixel VIPs

Pixel VIPs allows you to input various preferences such as what type of food, books and music you like. This information is saved to your device only. Google may use this information to provide you with suggestions like restaurants near you or books to discuss with your VIPs.

Troubleshoot WhatsApp notification priority

If your WhatsApp notifications aren't being prioritised correctly, it may be for one of these reasons:

• Companion Mode usage: When WhatsApp is in Companion Mode, the notification prioritisation feature may not be supported.
  • Examples of linked devices that use Companion Mode are tablets, secondary phones and computers.
  • This feature is primarily designed to run on your main device.
• Contact sync settings conflict: If you don't use a companion device, the issue is often related to how your phone's contacts are synced with WhatsApp. To resolve this, adjust your contact settings with one of these steps:
  • Adjust WhatsApp in-app settings for all contacts:
    1. Open WhatsApp.
    2. At the top-right corner, tap More Settings Privacy.
    3. Tap Contacts.
    4. Turn WhatsApp contacts off.
  • Adjust WhatsApp in-app settings for your preferred contacts:
    1. Open WhatsApp.
    2. Open the chat with the contact that you want to prioritise.
    3. At the top of the chat screen, tap on their name.
    4. In the top right-hand corner, tap More Edit.
    5. Turn off Sync contact to phone.
  • After you complete one of these steps, restart your device and check if the notification priority now works correctly.

Related resources

• Add apps, shortcuts and widgets to your home screens
• Add or move contacts