It turns out the Nexus 6 phablet has a hidden LED. But it appears that users can not turn it on in order to display notifications.
As seen on posted images on Reddit, the LED is located just beneath the speaker grill right on top of the headset. The light can turn red, blue, and green.
Aside from its RGB qualities, it looks like the LED light doesn't do much. The developers behind the Light Flow notifications app have helpfully posted some tips that will allow users to activate the light. However, doing so will require your Nexus 6 phablet to be rooted, which for most people is just not practical.
Google does not appear to be using the Nexus 6's LED light as a primary notification feature. This rather unfortunate news, especially for users who are fans of notification LEDs. However, manufacturers of mobile devices still continue to incorporate them on some smartphones and tablets. So if you got a device that features LED -- like the Nexus 6 for instance -- you can still configure them through the use of third-party apps.
Android 5.0 Lollipop, the latest version of the Android mobile operating system, has a new substitute for silent mode and it is called priority mode. But in this mode, LED notifications are not activated, even if your device fully supports notification lights, like the Nexus 5.
Indeed, using LED notifications as substitutes for sound or vibration is just not that simple anymore on the Android system. Which is kind of a bummer because LED notifications can actually be useful for people who rely on visual notifications, like persons with hearing issues, for instance.
In the last few years, notifications have become more complex. One notable feature of Android 5.0 Lollipop is that notifications now have associated actions. That is something that does not easily translate into just one LED. Moreover, Ambient Display and Moto Active Display features make full use of OLED displays to illuminate the display screen whenever a user receives a notification. Then there's today's smartwatches, particularly those that run on Android Wear. Essentially, they are all just supercharged notification lights attached to a wrist band.
Perhaps the secret LED on the Nexus 6 may meet the same fate as the Moto X released last year. The Moto X also had a LED embedded in the same place, but until now, the device still needs a rooted smartphone in order to signal notifications.
