Yes, you read that headline correctly. The Pixel 11 no longer shows the “Powered by Android” boot logo, which has been a staple for a few years now.
With Gemini taking an even greater portion of Google’s development efforts as of late, in some cases, to the detriment of Android, this is arguably not that much of a surprise. Recent Pixel phones have been positioned as the “Gemini phone” in marketing and by the media as a way to help differentiate what the devices do differently from the millions of other Android phones sold each year globally.
When you boot into any of the brand new Pixel 11 lineup, the bottom portion of the screen is notably absent of the classic “Powered by Android” splash with the older Bugdroid logo that has now been superseded by “The Bot” and has lived on since the Pixel 9 added the first Gemini animated boot screen. You can see the boot logo change below on the Pixel 10 Pro XL side-by-side with the Pixel 11 Pro XL:
When you’re used to seeing the splash message, it is odd, or at least a little jarring, to see it removed with Google being the custodian of the platform.
Coincidentally, boot times have improved significantly on the Pixel 11 series in our testing, and this is a really inconsequential change, given that most of the time you want your phone to power on quickly and not hang around in the boot sequence. I’m not sure anyone is rebooting their phone enough for this to be a problem, but it’s a definite branding decision that’s for sure.
That said, let’s pour one out for the lockscreen Bugdroid; he had a good run.
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More on Pixel 11:
- Pixel 11 Initial Review: This probably could have been a software update [Video]
- Google says Pixel 11’s new MediaTek modem is ‘faster and more power efficient’
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