I love my Google Pixel, but I despise the top row of my home screen. For almost ten years, this widget has been there. I didn’t choose it, I couldn’t move it, and until recently, I couldn’t get rid of it.
Anyone with a Pixel knows I’m talking about At a Glance. In the March 2026 Feature Drop, Google went all in on the widget, stuffing it with more data.
At the same time, Google gave users a long-overdue off switch, and I couldn’t be happier.
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What Google added to At a Glance in the March 2026 update
Fast-forward to March 2026. Google just dropped an update for supported Pixel devices (Pixel 6 and newer), and At a Glance is the star of the show.
The March Drop adds My Commute, which provides real-time updates on departures, delays, and alternative routes for your specific transit path.
If the L-train is delayed or your bus is running five minutes late, the widget lets you know. Google wants to save you the few seconds it takes to unlock your phone, open Maps, and check your route.
The March Drop also adds live sports scores and Google Finance summaries. If you follow a team in Google Search, the widget will now broadcast the live score during the match.
Finance integration works in much the same way. It pulls updates from your Google Finance watchlist and shows end-of-day summaries of the top movers in your portfolio.
As useful as it might seem, for many people, this widget isn’t helpful and only adds clutter. I’ve seen countless Reddit threads where users are begging for a way to move or delete At a Glance.
Spending $1,000 on a flagship like the Pixel 10 Pro comes with the expectation that you can manage your layout. But Google insisted that this exact layout was central to the Pixel identity.
If you preferred a clean aesthetic, a third-party launcher was your only solution. But that also comes with its own set of compromises.
If you’ve tried using a custom launcher on Pixel, you know what this looks like. Swiping up to go home sometimes results in a blank screen.
Taps sometimes don’t register. Return-to-home animations can be rough, and there are a lot of similar glitches.
The privacy concerns behind At a Glance
There’s also the privacy side of things. To be an omniscient assistant, At a Glance has to constantly consume your personal data, such as:
- Calendar: To tell you when your next meeting is.
- Gmail: To pull boarding passes, hotel reservations, and restaurant bookings.
- Location: To provide My Commute and local weather.
- Search History: To know which sports teams and stocks you care about.
Google argues that this is Ambient Computing, the idea that technology should be invisible and proactive. But the result is still a device that feels like it knows too much.
How Android 17 finally lets you remove it
If you’ve been keeping up with Android 17 Beta, you know Google has finally added the feature we’ve been asking for. All you have to do is:
- Long-press At a Glance on your home screen.
- Tap Settings.
- Find the new toggle labeled Show on home screen and turn it off.
I really appreciate that Google lets you adjust the widget without committing to all or nothing.
You can still glance at your phone on the desk to check the weather or your next meeting, but after you unlock it, your home screen stays clean.
Keeping up with Apple and Samsung
Google is finally catching up to the customization standards its competitors set years ago. iOS has had this figured out for a while.
Apple’s Smart Stacks offer similar updates, like calendar events and weather, but they’re never locked to one spot on the screen. With the iPhone, you decide where they go, or if they stay at all.
Samsung took a similar approach with Now Brief in One UI 7, which basically mirrors what At a Glance is trying to do. But it isn’t forced on you.
Giving back control to the users
Google is building an ambient AI manager. In many ways, it is a noble goal. The point is to minimize the time we waste hunting through folders and menus.
But they’ve finally accepted that some users don’t want all the extra bells and whistles.
If you’re one of those Pixel owners, you can join the Android 17 Beta or wait for the stable release this summer.
Google has finally given us the choice, and it’s easily the best feature they’ve added to Android in years.
