Ryan Haines / Android Authority

When Google released the Pixel 9 series last year, the phones came with a new app called Pixel Studio. It’s an AI-powered image generator, something I couldn’t have had less interest in if I tried. Once I used it, though, it quickly became one of my most-used Pixel apps, but that stopped when I realized it was missing a crucial feature.

Do you use Pixel Studio?

8 votes

Why I use Pixel Studio

The images you can generate with Pixel Studio are impressive, but that’s not what I use it for. Instead, I use it to make stickers for my chat apps. I’ve got quite the collection of stickers on Telegram, and I’ve always wished that I could use them everywhere else. Pixel Studio does just that — any image can be imported, edited, and saved as a sticker that can be accessed in Gboard, no matter what app you’re in.

When I spent a few weeks with a Pixel 9 Pro earlier this year, I transferred the majority of my Telegram stickers into Gboard using this tool, and had a great time annoying people with them. So, if I like it so much, what’s my problem?

Pixel Studio really needs backup and sync

Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority

Alas, the stickers you make in Pixel Studio can’t be backed up anywhere or synced with your Google account across all your devices. I only had the Pixel 9 Pro for a few weeks, but when I bought my Pixel 10 Pro, I expected my stickers to be included in the device backup I restored. Or that at least they would show up because they were associated and synced with my account in the app. That didn’t happen, and all of the time I’d spent making those stickers went to waste.

Of course, I can remake them now, but it almost feels pointless. Putting the effort into remaking the dozens of stickers I use feels like a waste when a factory reset could wipe them out forever or when they’ll disappear the next time I switch phones. Even worse, the process has been entirely broken on my 10 Pro since I got it. I can make stickers, the app says they’ve been added to Gboard, but no matter what I do or where I look, they don’t show up anywhere.

I know — there are more important things in life than silly stickers that can be used in group chats, but backing up data like this is such a basic feature. Samsung’s Galaxy Avatar feature, which makes stickers based on photos of you, is integrated into Samsung’s cloud backups, so why can’t Google do the same?

What do you use Pixel Studio for? Do you use it at all? Let us know.

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