The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are missing the “Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep” option from their Wi-Fi settings, one user has uncovered. If this lack of an established Wi-Fi feature is a bug, it appears to be affecting all members of the smartphone lineup, with numerous new owners of the devices already confirming they’re missing the same option and the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL review units sent to Android Headlines by Google being no different, as evidenced by the screenshots below which have been redacted to not reveal any specific network information.
The Mountain View, California-based tech giant hasn’t referenced the newly uncovered omission in any capacity so far and the original Pixel and Pixel XL still display the old option in the “Wi-Fi preferences” menu even after the jump to Android 8.0 Oreo. Tapping the feature on other devices usually presents users with a pop-up window providing them with three options for modifying the behavior of their phone’s Wi-Fi state; apart from “Always” and “Never” keeping Wi-Fi enabled during sleep, Android also natively allows you to only disable Wi-Fi when your phone isn’t charging. Following the removal of the feature, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL units apparently have the “Always” state turned on by default and cannot be manually set to another one without resorting to third-party apps. If the omission is intentional, it’s likely that the functionality itself wasn’t getting much use and the Alphabet-owned firm decided to do away with it like it usually does with services that don’t gain a lot of traction.
The latest Pixel-series devices run Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box but do come with some extra software features that aren’t part of the vanilla version of Google’s mobile operating system. Native Google Lens integration is one of those functionalities, though it has already started rolling out to the 2016 Pixel phones and will presumably become more widely available come next year, thus mimicking the manner in which Google Assistant mobile support was introduced in 2016 and expanded in early 2017. The smartphones themselves started retailing in the United States last week and aren’t enjoying an entirely problem-free launch but are still widely touted as some of the best Android devices ever made by both critics and consumers alike.
