Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Our APK teardown of the Pixel Journal version reveals upcoming reminder controls that let you choose when journaling notifications arrive.
- The update also hints at new media layouts, including compact photo grids and a “Show all” gallery view for entries.
- Other tweaks include full-screen video playback, a theme override option, and small interface changes across the app.
It’s not just Pixel 10 owners who can enjoy the richer features of Pixel Journal anymore. Earlier this week, the March Pixel Drop expanded several of the app’s AI capabilities to Pixel 9 devices, including Reflections, Revisit Topics, and Mood ID. While that update brought more people into the fold, it looks like Google is still actively refining the journaling experience itself.
After digging around in version 2026.02.10.867917178 of the app, we’ve spotted a number of interface tweaks and new options currently in development. Some of these changes are already visible if you’re running the latest version today, while others required us to manually enable them under the hood. We’ll walk through each of the changes below and note which ones are already available and which appear to still be in testing behind the scenes.
Pixel Journal may soon let you control when reminders arrive
Currently, Pixel Journal can send you reminders and follow-up notifications encouraging you to write an entry, but you don’t have much control over when those prompts appear.
In the latest version of the app, Google appears to be experimenting with more customizable reminder controls. We were able to activate a new “Set up reminders” banner at the top of the Entries page that invites you to configure when journaling notifications should arrive. Check out the screenshots below.
Tapping this banner opens a Reminders screen where you can toggle three time windows: Morning, Afternoon, and Evening, roughly 7:00 AM, 2:00 PM, and 9:00 PM. The same controls can also be accessed from the Journal settings page. This feature isn’t currently visible by default in the build, suggesting Google is still testing it internally.
Pixel Journal may soon let you customize how entry media appears
Another upcoming change appears to be new layout controls for photos and videos within a journal entry. In the current version of the app, media is displayed in a horizontally scrolling carousel. Google seems to be experimenting with giving users more control over how this content appears.
We enabled a new Layout option in the customization menu that introduces two choices: Compact and Full. The Compact layout groups photos into a more compact block, making entries with multiple images feel a little tidier. The Full option keeps the familiar horizontal carousel, allowing you to swipe through photos one at a time.
Like the reminders thing, these layout options aren’t currently visible by default in the build and appear to still be in development.
What is already enabled is that entries containing multiple photos or videos also have a “Show all” button beneath the media section. Tapping this opens a dedicated “Your journal media” page that displays all photos and videos attached to the entry in a grid view. This essentially turns each journal entry into its own mini gallery, making it easier to browse larger collections of memories.
Videos in entries are getting a better player
Google also appears to be improving how videos behave inside journal entries. At the moment, videos can only be played in the media carousel, and there’s no option to view them in full-screen mode.
The updated interface adds a small time chip overlay on top of videos that displays their duration. Tapping this chip lets you quickly mute the video’s audio. The first image below shows the old UI, whereas the second image shows the version in the build.
More importantly, tapping the video itself now opens it in a full-screen player. The playback interface looks very similar to the video viewer used in Google Photos, complete with a timeline scrubber. You can see it in the third image above. This should make watching longer clips inside journal entries much more comfortable. This particular change is already available in the build.
Pixel Journal settings are also getting a rejig
The Journal settings page is also seeing a couple of tweaks. For starters, the AI features option has been moved closer to the top of the settings list, making it more prominent. Given how heavily Google has leaned into the app’s AI capabilities, this repositioning likely aims to make those tools easier to find. You can see the before and after in the first two screenshots below.
You may have also noticed a brand-new Theme option in the second image. Previously, Pixel Journal simply followed the system-wide theme set on your device. With this addition, you can now override that behavior and manually choose between Light, Dark, or System default directly within the app. See the third image above.
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We didn’t need to enable these settings changes, so you can see them if you update to the latest version.
The Insights page layout is changing slightly
Finally, Google appears to be tweaking the layout of the Insights page. In the current version, the calendar picker used to navigate between weeks sits within the Mood card itself. In the updated design, the month label and navigation arrows are moved to the top of the page. This places the controls for switching weeks in a more obvious position and should make browsing through past entries a little quicker.
Compare the current UI in the first image above with the version we enabled in the second image. Like the new media layout options, this interface tweak isn’t currently enabled by default and appears to still be under development.
Of course, as with any APK teardown, there’s no guarantee that these features will make it into a future release of Pixel Journal, especially those that aren’t currently visible in the current version. Still, the changes suggest Google is continuing to refine the app’s interface and usability, suggesting it sees it as an important part of the Pixel experience.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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