Google should add option to hide Quick Settings panel on Pixel lock screen

Your Google Pixel phone’s Quick Settings are often a mere pocket-press away from turning off Wi-Fi, mobile data, or worse, activating Airplane mode. This is frustratingly common, especially if you’re used to carrying your phone in your pocket.

What’s even more baffling is that Android phone makers already figured this out. Companies like OnePlus and Xiaomi understand the potential hassle and security risk, so they offer the option to disable or completely hide Quick Settings from your lock screen. Even Samsung offers accidental touch protection, adding another layer of defense against pocket mishaps.

But here’s the kicker: Google, the very creator of Android, still doesn’t offer these basic functionalities on its Pixel phones. To have your core settings easily messed with — intentionally or by accident — feels out of sync with Google’s usual focus on user experience and security. The good news is that Google can easily do something about it. In fact, with Android 15 development underway, it would be the ideal opportunity for Google to rectify this oversight. Adding the option to toggle Quick Settings on the lock screen, and potentially even accidental touch protection, would be simple yet meaningful wins for Pixel users.

Google hasn’t said anything about potentially adding the ability to hide Quick Settings panel from the lock screen to its Pixel lineup. But there’s growing interest among Pixel users who would want this feature added. Whether Google does them justice or not remains to be seen, but it would definitely be a welcome idea to have this option. If you want to see this feature in future, perhaps upvoting this thread in the issue tracker would be a good place to start.

But until then, we’ll just have to be extra careful with our pockets and hope Google finally takes notice of features that seemingly everyone else has already figured out.