Pixel phones now give you a thermometer, for the inside

Pixel phones have gained a reputation for running hot and offering poor battery life. The Tensor G4 chip inside the Pixel 9 fixes these issues to a great extent, but the Pixel 6 to Pixel 8 series still struggles with overheating issues even under moderate load. Now, Google wants you to know exactly how hot your Pixel is running so you can take the appropriate actions.

An update to the Pixel Troubleshooting app introduces the Device temperature section to the Pixel’s built-in battery diagnostic tool. Following the update, navigating to Settings > Battery > Battery diagnostics and selecting Phone is very warm should reveal a new Device temperature section. It will display your Pixel’s current temperature alongside a color-coded label to indicate whether it is Cold, Normal, Warm, or Elevated.

Before the update, tapping the Phone is very warm option displayed an “All settings are optimized” message.

Left: Before the update; Right: The new Device temperature section

9to5Google reports that your Pixel will also show the following messages based on its temperature:

• “Your phone’s estimated temperature is lower than normal. It may shut down suddenly.”
• “This estimated temperature is typical with normal phone use.”
• “Your phone is slightly warm, but this is normal during use. To prevent further temperature increases, screen brightness and network speeds may be reduced.”
• “Your phone is slightly warm, but this is normal during use. To prevent further temperature increases, charging is paused, and screen brightness and network speeds may be reduced.”
• “Your phone’s estimated temperature is higher than normal. Your phone will try to cool down by temporarily limiting performance and pausing certain features.”

If your Pixel is slightly warm or running hotter than usual, it may stop charging and reduce the display brightness to help reduce the temperature. Depending on how hot your phone is running, the Device temperature section will also suggest tips on how to cool it down, including closing unwanted apps, providing cool airflow, not using the phone for some time, etc.

You can now know exactly how hot your Pixel is running

You could already use the built-in thermometer on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 to measure how hot an object is. The latest Pixel troubleshooting update gives you an internal thermometer to know how hot your Pixel is running. However, I am not sure how useful this feature is. If your phone is running warm, you can already feel it, and knowing the exact temperature will not help improve the situation.

The Device temperature section popped up on my Pixel 8 Pro running the Android 15 QPR2 beta after installing the latest Pixel troubleshooting update from the Play Store. If you don’t see the app update on the Play Store, visit the listing directly and grab the latest build.