How to Check for System Updates on Your Google Pixel Home Screen

What if we told you there’s an easier way to check for updates with two quick taps straight from your home screen? Find out more now!

You know the drill — your Google Pixel phone gets a monthly update every month, 12 times a year. That’s a lot of updates! Sometimes they’re significant and sometimes not, but if you’re anything like us, we like to get those updates as fast as possible. Is it FOMO — maybe? But no matter what, it’s essential to keep your device up to date at all times for new features and security patches.

Adding the Settings Widget

1. Long-press any blank space on your home screen.
2. Go to the “Widgets” section on your home launcher.
3. Scroll down to locate the “Settings” widget.
4. Drag and drop it onto any one of your home screens.
5. On the “Settings shortcut” page, scroll down to the bottom and select the “System” option.
6. There should now be a new shortcut on your home screen called “System.”

Checking For System Updates With Two Quick Taps

1. From your home screen, tap the newly created “System” shortcut.
2. Locate the “System update” section, then tap it to move forward.
3. It will now automatically check if you have any system updates for your phone and install them accordingly.

And just like that, you’re a system update ninja now — no more waiting around for the Pixel update notification or digging through the menus yourself. It sounds so simple, but you’d be surprised by how many people missed this one. At this point, you can now check for system updates on your Pixel phone literally with two taps right from your home screen. It can’t get any easier than that!

Side Note

This is not a Pixel exclusive feature, but it’s guaranteed to work if you own a Pixel phone. This can be done with other Android devices as well — just check to see if you have the “Settings” widget. Follow the same steps as listed above, and you too can get two-tap system updates right from your home screen.

This essential quick tip was brought to you by the How-ToTechPros team. Essential quick tips are super fast and easy-to-digest tech tips that aren’t meant to be overly complicated. We want to welcome all tech users equally regardless of their experience — that has been our goal since the beginning.