- A new Pixel feature has arrived for Google phones
- This update includes new AI photo editing tools and Wicked theme packs.
- It also includes AI-powered notification summaries, scam text alerts, and more.
After a recent leak, the next Pixel feature drop has arrived and there’s a lot here to focus on.
For one thing, there are several AI updates, and you can now get AI-powered notification summaries, so you can quickly catch up on messages without reading paragraphs of text. And Google promises that in December there will also be an update that will allow lower priority notifications to be silenced.
Also on the AI front, you can now use Google’s Nano Banana AI model to edit images directly in Google Messages.
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But if you head over to Google Photos, you’ll find that the editing capabilities are even more powerful than they used to be, as you can now ask the AI to edit specific people you mention by name. So, for example, you could say, “Take off Riley’s sunglasses, open my eyes, make Engel smile, and open his eyes.” However, to do this, you first need to make sure you have “face groups” set up for everyone you mention, so Google Photos can identify them.
Other updates in this Pixel Feature Drop include Wicked theme packs, which let you personalize your Pixel with wallpapers, icons, sounds, and GIFs inspired by the movie, and there’s also a feature that will alert you to potential scams when you receive chat notifications from many popular apps.
Additionally, with this update you will receive priority notifications from people you have set as “VIP”, and Google Maps now has a battery saving feature that allows you to see a simplified layout, with only the key information. Google claims that using this design could extend your phone’s battery life by up to four hours.
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Limited availability
It’s worth noting that, unfortunately, scam alerts and custom edits in Google Photos are currently only available in the US. There may be good reasons for this, but this uneven feature availability is something we hate to see.
Still, in more positive news on that front, this update brings some existing Pixel features to more regions. Now, Google Pixel 9 or later users in the UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and India can access AI-powered scam call detection.
Additionally, Pixel users in the UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and Japan can now use Call Notes, which uses Gemini Nano on the device to record your calls, take notes, and create a transcript and summary of your calls.
So this is a pretty important update and worth downloading.
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