#TeamPixel Purges Tech Reviewers
Forgive this intro as it gets fairly personal. Thanks.
Back in late 2022 I was going through one of the most mentally challenging times I’ve ever been through dealing with the loss of one of the best friends I’ll ever have - my dog Copper. She was with me pretty much continuously from her birth, which I was actually there for. The unconditional love that dog gave me got me through more than I can reasonably write in a post like this.
Team Pixel
The reason I bring this up is because in September of 2022 I received an email that left me incredibly conflicted. After two years of working my rear off covering tech a major brand had emailed me and offered to send me a phone to review for free.
Validation. And from a brand as big as Google..
The thing is, having something so positive happen only a month after losing my girl was actually pretty tough to process. Many of you will know this feeling as we all end up grieving eventually, but most of what I could feel was guilt anytime a shred of excitement snuck in. Still, I have to admit that when that shiny Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel Watch arrived I did feel a brief respite from the gloom. The content I would go on to make did serve as a much needed distraction as well.
You have to move forward and Google provided me with exciting work to focus on. Being part of #TeamPixel at that moment was probably so much more important that anyone at 1000 Heads (the PR company that runs Team Pixel) could possibly know.
The Controversy
Many of you may remember back in late 2024 when news broke that Google was seemingly asking members to not “prefer” other brands over the Pixel they were about to be sent. As expected, this sent the internet into a tailspin. The exact wording was strange and vague and hinted at a deeper problem with Team Pixel.
Please note that if it appears other brands are being preferred over the Pixel, we will need to cease the relationship between the brand and the creator.
Was Google literally asking for reviewers to be dishonest on threat of losing their free phones? Many Team Pixel members came forward to clarify that this sort of language had never been included in our agreements in the past and that we were just as confused as everyone else. Only days later Google would remove that problematic wording a release a statement that made the real issue much more clear.
#TeamPixel is a distinct program, separate from our press and creator reviews programs. The goal of #TeamPixel is to get Pixel devices into the hands of content creators, not press and tech reviewers. We missed the mark with this new language that appeared in the #TeamPixel form yesterday, and it has been removed.
Team Pixel was never meant to be for tech reviewers like me. It was for influencers. They weren’t asking reviewers to lie, they were telling influencers not to ignore the Pixel they were just sent and keep posting from and about their iPhones instead.
It never really made sense why Google had a reviews program, but also sent people like me phones through Team Pixel. It almost seemed like 1000 Heads/Google didn’t fully realize how much they’d muddied the waters by gifting people who saw themselves as Press and/or Tech Reviewers phones.
A course correction felt imminent and it turned out that it was.
Team Pixel No Longer
All of this is why it came as no great shock that many of us in the program received the email you see today. Team Pixel is for lifestyle content, art, sports and photography, not tech reviewers like me. Because of that, they’ve removed me from the program. I guess the good news is that slab phone content isn’t really my money maker and they weren’t sending me Pixel Folds anyways. Just don’t expect a Pixel 10 review unless that phone looks amazing..
Regardless, I’m grateful for the time spent in the program. Grateful for the phones, the swag and for what it meant to me during a really hard time in my life. All things must come to an end eventually. Sometimes in life you get kicked out of parties you weren’t actually supposed to be at.