You Can Finally Fix Your Own Damn Pixel

You can baby your new phone all you want, but sometimes, shit just breaks. Case or no case, screen protector or not—one bad fall marks doom for your Pixel. Traditionally, the move has been to take a broken phone to a repair shop, or the company that made it. But like more and more companies slowly but surely, Google now supports your decision to fix your phone yourself.

Google now lets you fix your own Pixel

Back in April, Google announced its plans to offer genuine Pixel parts to customers, so everyone could have the chance to fix their own Pixel phones. Google picked iFixit as its partner in this Pixel self-repair program, which was a good choice. iFixit specializes in both the selling of parts as well as detailed walkthroughs for fixing your own tech, so they’re a good all-in-one package for a company like Google to partner with. While Google hasn’t officially approved the walkthroughs, iFixit is reputable.

Fixing your own stuff comes with a host of benefits. For one, you’re in control: You aren’t handing over your phone to someone else, hoping they don’t abuse the data inside. Of course, the risk there is low, so the more immediate benefit is the cost. As with anything in life, when you only pay for the parts for something, and not the labor, you save quite a bit of money.

This has been a sticking point for a while now, and is the basis for the Right to Repair movement. Tech companies would rather you didn’t repair your own devices, and would hardly prefer you bring them to a third-party repair shop. They’d instead like you to bring the device directly back to them, where they can charge you what they like to repair it, or tell you the repair simply isn’t worth the cost, so you buy a new device entirely. Some, like Apple, have even tried to punish users for using non-genuine parts, forcing users to go through first-party repair stores in order to properly complete the repair.

Like Google, however, Apple also relented, offering customers an official way to fix their stuff themselves last year. Unlike Google, however, Apple’s system is convoluted, expensive, and generally not worth it. You’re often better off going through iFixit to repair your Apple devices than Apple’s program.

How to fix your Pixel using Google’s repair program

But back to repairing your Pixel: The program supports parts for Pixel 2 through Pixel 7, but I imagine we’ll soon see parts for the new Pixel 7a (and perhaps Pixel Fold as well). iFixit also has parts for older Google devices, like an OG Pixel screen and Pixel XL charging assembly, but they aren’t officially covered under the program.

To start, go to the official iFixit Pixel repair page, then choose whether to shop for individual parts, or for repair kits. The repair kits include everything you need to tackle a particular fix, such as a screen replacement, battery swap, or a camera fix. Let’s say you’re looking to fix a Pixel 7 Pro display. The part is available for purchase here, as is the linked guide for repairing the display. It shows you how to use all the tools necessary to complete the repair, as well as the length of the repair and the level of difficulty. In this case, it’ll take 30–40 minutes, and is moderately difficult to do.

YouTuber Hugh Jefferies followed the program to fix this Pixel 7 Pro, and you can see the results in the video below:

Of course, not all of us want to repair our own devices, preferring to outsource the work to someone who definitely knows what they’re doing. This is especially wise when it comes to replacing batteries, but even screen repairs are intimidating. Google also partners with uBreakiFix to supply genuine parts and training to repair technicians, so it’s worth scoping one of those stores out. However, don’t forget: It’s always worth getting a second opinion on tech repairs, so don’t take the first quote you get.