{"id":260199,"date":"2026-05-31T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/essentials-app-hands-on-bringing-good-lock-features-to-my-pixel\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T07:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T11:15:22","slug":"essentials-app-hands-on-bringing-good-lock-features-to-my-pixel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/essentials-app-hands-on-bringing-good-lock-features-to-my-pixel\/","title":{"rendered":"Essentials app hands-on: Bringing Good Lock features to my Pixel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essentials app hands-on: Bringing Good Lock features to my Pixel<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/good-lock-for-pixel-essentials-app-hands-on-3670994\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-31 07:05:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.androidauthority.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Andy Walker \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

As a part-time Google Pixel user, there\u2019s one thing I miss dearly when switching over from my Samsung phone: Good Lock. The customization suite has become such an integral part of my One UI setup that I\u2019d find it tough to adjust to a stock Samsung experience. Needless to say, it\u2019s always quite a shock when moving from Galaxy to Pixel.<\/p>\n

Google doesn\u2019t offer users a Good Lock equivalent for Pixels, and this is certainly one of the platform\u2019s bigger oversights. I\u2019d love to adjust various swipe triggers, tinker with my recents screen layout, and fine-tune themes and visuals. While we\u2019ll probably never see a similar app on Google\u2019s platform, this hasn\u2019t stopped third-party developers from trying.<\/p>\n

I recently stumbled across an open-source app called Essentials, and while it falls short of Good Lock\u2019s sheer breadth of tools and features, it\u2019s the closest equivalent for Pixel phones right now.<\/p>\n

Do you want Google to develop a Good Lock equivalent for Pixels?<\/h3>\n

2 votes<\/p>\n

Yes, I want an official toolkit.<\/p>\n

100%<\/p>\n

Yes, but I’d settle for third-party alternatives.<\/p>\n

0%<\/p>\n

No, Pixels don’t need a Good Lock equivalent.<\/p>\n

0%<\/p>\n

I’m not sure.<\/p>\n

0%<\/p>\n

A new essential install for Pixel (and Android) users<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

\"essentials\"essentials<\/p>\n

Essentials, like Good Lock, houses a collection of \u201ctools, mods, and workarounds for Pixels and other Androids,\u201d its GitHub description reads. While I\u2019ve used it on both my Galaxy S24 FE and Pixel 8, and the developer confirms that it works across most Android devices, I can safely say that it\u2019s far more useful on Google phones.<\/p>\n

Although I\u2019m drawing plenty of comparisons between Essentials and Good Lock, there are some vast differences between them. Unlike Good Lock\u2019s collection of modules that users can choose to install, Essentials packs all of its tricks into one bag from the get-go, with each separated by category or function. This, I feel, is a far more approachable way to package a tools-and-tricks app.<\/p>\n

So what tricks are on tap, exactly?<\/p>\n

\"essentials<\/p>\n

Andy…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essentials app hands-on: Bringing Good Lock features to my Pixel https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/good-lock-for-pixel-essentials-app-hands-on-3670994\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-31 07:05:00…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/essentials-android-app-8.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[70,72,86],"class_list":["post-260199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-android","tag-google","tag-pixel","tag-samsung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260201,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260199\/revisions\/260201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}