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Google Pixel devices can pin apps to Android’s share menu w/ March security update

Android’s sharing menu is pretty solid, but one update we’ve been pretty excited about in Android 11 is the ability to pin apps to the share menu to ensure they always show at the top. If you have a Google Pixel smartphone, though, you won’t have to wait until Android 11 to pin apps to the share menu.

Enabled as a part of the March security update, you can now pin apps to Android’s share menu by long-pressing on the app icon.

You can only pin up to four applications to the share menu and, once they’re pinned, they’ll always show up as a separate row at the top of the share list. They won’t show up at the very top, though, as you’ll still have a row of “direct” sharing targets for specific contacts in apps like Google Messages, WhatsApp, Instagram, and others. Notably, though, you can also pin these direct targets, too!

If you try to pin a fifth application to the share menu, Android won’t unpin anything, it will simply replace the last-selected pinned app from the list with the new one.

Most Android users will have to wait until Android 11 to get their hands on this feature, but it’s live for Google Pixel owners now. We’ve confirmed the feature is live on Pixel 4 and Pixel 3 on the March update, so it’s probably safe to assume Pixel 2 and Pixel 3a have it as well.

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