Rasheed: Welcome back to the Made by Google
podcast, where you hear the stories from the people that build many
of our products.
I'm your host, Rasheed Finch.
And today feels a bit like Christmas, because if you're
in the Pixel universe, you're getting a new feature drop today.
And it's a big one.
Let's dive straight in.
So to tell you all about the feature drop,
we have our director of product management for Pixel with us.
Please welcome back Shenaz Zak.
Shenaz, great to have you on the podcast once again.
And thanks for bringing Christmas early.
And for those who don't know what feature drops are,
please tell us more about them.
Shenaz: Sure.
Just like you said, we celebrate so many moments in our life, right?
And with that same concept, we launched feature drops in 2019.
Our main focus is that we want your device, your Pixel device,
to continue to keep getting better over time.
And feature drops is our way of ensuring that your investment
into the Pixel phones and the Pixel ecosystem
continues to give you the latest and greatest from Google, especially
when your phone starts to put mileage--
your excitement about the device you once loved may begin to wane.
And like I said, we've been doing this for 2019.
And we are one of the few OEMs--
or I think, the only OEM--
that has feature drops.
And thanks to feature drop, software updates,
that improve your device helping them do more, and work better together.
They load in the background, delivering new features,
expanding existing features to older Pixel phones.
And also, in expanded languages and regions.
And we've also heard from our users, based on survey,
this is one of the reasons why people are choosing to purchase the Pixel
device, because of feature drops, and because of these new features
that come to their phones on a regular basis.
And so our June feature drop, which is jam-packed,
brings a boost of helpfulness, health and safety
to your Pixel phones, and watch, along with updates for Fitbit devices,
as well.
And all of these updates are rolling out to devices today,
and will continue over the coming weeks.
Rasheed: So yeah, we call it a June feature drop.
Now Shenaz, if you have a Pixel phone, what
can you expect in this feature drop?
Shenaz: Sure, there's a lot that's coming in the feature drop.
But the first thing I do want to talk about is safety.
Safety is very important for us all, right?
And Pixel continues to build on safety features, to help keep you safer--
whether you're on the go, or resting at home--
so the features are like safety check, or emergency sharing with assistant,
and an update to car crash detection.
Car crash detection, the way it works right now is if you are in a car crash,
and your phone detects you were in a car crash,
it calls emergency services and shares your location if you don't respond.
So we are enhancing car crash.
It will also share your real location-- real-time location, and call status,
with your emergency contacts.
So that they know you were in a car crash, as well.
Also, the other one that I just mentioned was safety check.
Which is now available via Google Assistant, which allows you to schedule
a safety ping, which can be sent out to your loved ones,
if you're feeling unsafe, all with just your voice, OK?
Rasheed: Right.
Shenaz: And with safety check, you can also schedule a time for Pixel
to check in with you, and can automatically
start sharing your real-time location and call
status with your emergency contacts if you don't respond to your phone.
They're like, hey, are you feeling--
are you OK?
And if you don't respond, we will send your real-time location and call
status to your emergency contacts.
And now, this is available via assistant.
And you can very conveniently start and stop safety check with just your voice.
And these features will give your family, your loved
ones, a little more peace of mind--
especially for parents like me, with kids who are out and about on a summer
vacation right now.
Rasheed: Yeah, I was just thinking, if I go on a long run,
I could probably schedule a safety check, you know, by the time
it should have returned.
And then, if I don't, then at least someone will be notified.
That's sort of the point of it.
Yeah, that's actually great.
Shenaz: Absolutely right.
That is absolutely right, Rasheed.
Rasheed: Shenaz, I was thinking back at Google I/O, the keynote,
and especially, I think, my favorite part has to be Dave Birk, you know,
demoing for all those people new features in Android with wallpapers.
And I'm just hoping some of these are coming to the June feature drop.
Shenaz: Definitely.
Dave did just such an amazing job.
Like-- and especially during a live demo in front of such a massive audience
that is watching him, with millions and people around the world.
I wish I could do even a small bit of what Dave did.
But yes, self-expression and customization is core
to the Pixel and Android experience.
And we're really excited to be the first smartphone from Pixel 6
to get some really cool new features-- the emoji wallpaper,
and the cinematic wallpaper.
Emoji wallpaper lets you customize your device using your favorite emoji
combination patterns and colors, so you can
pick from multiple emoji combinations.
And cinematic wallpaper, which is, I will say
biased, a little bit of my favorite.
What it does is it uses on-device machine learning to transform
your favorite photo that you've picked as a wallpaper
into a really stunning 3D image.
So I have to say, I've been using this, and it has made my furry baby, my dog,
look really nice on my wallpaper on Pixel.
And it just makes me feel really good.
Rasheed: Amazing.
But now, what if you would switch back to the emoji wallpaper?
Like which emojis would-- would we see on your home screen, then?
Shenaz: OK, I go through phases.
There's the thinking emoji, where I'm thinking.
There's also the one with the eyebrow, which is like what?
Rasheed: Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, we've all been there, for sure.
Shenaz: So me-- the hug.
So it's a combination of that with hug emoji.
Rasheed: Amazing, that's going to be a great wallpaper.
So now, we've talked about safety, personalization, as well.
But I also saw some really cool photography updates.
What can you tell us about those?
Shenaz: Providing our users with the ability
to capture beautiful experiences and memories is a cornerstone for our Pixel
phones-- and making sure you get those right memories, those right pictures,
those right videos.
And so now, with Pixel 7 Pro, you can utilize macro focus video, which
allows you to capture really incredible detail
in videos, to create larger than life videos-- of dewdrops, or butterflies.
Or for me, I've been using it to capture food.
I cook every evening, so when I'm cooking, I like to zoom in
and then I zoom out.
Because sometimes when you're zoomed in, you don't know what this is.
So like you zoom in, like-- and then you zoom out completely,
and get some really good videos.
Another one that I've been using a lot is the palm timer.
I was at Yosemite with my family last weekend,
and-- and I loved putting my Pixel-- because I wanted
the whole picture-- and the waterfalls were amazing in Yosemite--
and I'm just kind of like raising my palm, which triggers the self-timer.
So you put your phone in the timer, mode self-timer,
and then you just have to raise your palm.
And everybody's aligned, you raise your palm, it triggers the timer,
and then you can take a perfect shot, rather than press the timer,
and they're like, OK, come on, huddle together!
Especially if you have kids, it's hard.
So I'm like, kids are you ready?
Put your palm up, and it's going to take that picture.
And so those are some of the new things that are
also coming with the June feature drop.
Rasheed: I was thinking, it could be hard because since our listeners cannot
see what the palm sort of gesture is, but I was thinking if you go
on YouTube, and you go to Stop by the Spice Girls,
it's going to be very clear what kind of gesture you need to do.
Shenaz: Yes.
Rasheed: That's what I was thinking about.
So now, we had phones, of course, the Pixel universe is now much bigger.
So if we look at wearables and Pixel Watch,
what have we got in store for them with the June feature drop?
Shenaz: Of course, I can shed some light on this.
The Pixel Watch now has blood oxygen tracking.
Where it can track your nighttime oxygen saturation.
And help identify changes while you're sleeping.
It's a very important way to help monitor your overall wellness.
And there'll also be a change in heart rate notifications.
So your Pixel Watch, now, can let if your heart rate falls
outside of your normal thresholds.
Rasheed: Amazing.
And now, for music fans, I've seen some rumors about an update for Spotify.
Is that coming in this feature drop, as well, then?
Shenaz: Yes, yes, it is coming.
So you can now quickly kick off a Spotify DJ session, listen to podcasts,
or check out what's in your heavy rotation,
just from your wrist with three new tiles.
And it's very convenient.
Rasheed: What I also like is that we're adding in some bling,
basically, with new metal links bands available in brushed silver and matte
black, which is exceptional for Pixel Watches.
Available from Friday online at the Google Store,
and Google retail locations, to make that June feature drop extra beautiful,
I guess.
Shenaz: Oh, definitely.
I've been sporting some metal bands on my wrist.
They look-- Rasheed: Oh, you have one.
Oh, that's amazing.
Shenaz: There's a very timeless, refined look to the watch.
I mean, personally, it looks really good.
Definitely looks good.
Helps with that watch elevation of it.
Rasheed: I can't wait.
How about for Fitbit users?
What do we have there when it comes to updates?
Shenaz: Sure, Fitbit is also adding more health and fitness
updates to make your life easier, as well,
with more personalization options.
For example, right on your wrist, you'll get notifications in more languages,
have the ability to check your daily readiness score,
and add new clock faces for various smartwatches and trackers.
And for trackers, you'll also be able to access a full list of exercise modes
on your wrist, with your most recent ones at the top.
Rasheed: Now, I thought this is sort of where the feature drop ends,
but there's actually more-- there are more updates
and expansions of existing features.
You've been busy, Shenaz.
So what else have we got, then?
Shenaz: The whole team has been busy.
And I said, it's all of Google coming together.
So yeah, it's a great question.
As I said, earlier, feature drops are enhancing your phone,
enhancing existing features to older Pixels, and also adding,
or expansion to languages and regions.
So we are expanding several existing features to more regions, languages,
and also users will now be able to access
their favorite smart home devices right from the Pixel lockscreen
when using the Google Home app.
And you also added some smart features, including adaptive haptics to lower
vibration intensity on harder surfaces.
Adaptive charging to help preserve battery lifespan.
And Find My Device for Android, which you can
use even when your device is offline.
And lastly, we've added two new Google Assistant voices to add
to your diverse array of options.
We're now up to 12, I believe, in US English.
So as I said earlier, our goal with expansions
is to provide our users not just with features they want,
or features which are new features.
But updates they need with increased languages,
regions available across devices, and we want to continue to make
our Pixel accessible and easier to use.
And there's so much more.
I could be here for hours, but maybe we should just point people to the Google
Keyword blog for all updates?
Rasheed: That makes a lot of sense.
So yeah, that's at blog.Google-- we'll also
leave a direct link in the description of this episode
so you can find it right there.
I still have some questions, Shenaz, with so many great ideas
for what to update and build on.
So how do you sort of decide like what do you put in this feature drop,
maybe in the next one?
What goes into deciding all these things?
Shenaz: It's-- it's a very thoughtful and thorough process.
One of the biggest things we look at is incorporating user
feedback as much as possibly we can.
The team is always paying attention to what our users are giving us feedback
on, across so many streams of content, like through the support
channels that our users contact us through, Reddit, through Twitter--
the team across the Pixel team looks at all of the user feedback.
And then, at the end of the day, what matters
is where-- whether users find these updates
and features helpful and beneficial, and that's really our North Star.
And it comes to planning these updates, and bringing
them to life for our users.
Rasheed: There's just one last question to ask,
not the least one, so with all these features and all
these updates in the June feature drop, is there one that excites you most,
personally?
Shenaz: Tough one to pick only one.
I could probably pick two, maybe, if I'm allowed to.
Rasheed: All right, OK, let's go for the two.
Yeah.
Shenaz: Because there's so many awesome features, that so many teams have
come together to launch for our users.
So let me pick the first one, which I said
is around safety and peace of mind, which
is the update to car crash detection.
As I recently lived through it, where my son had a car crash,
and he called me in a very panicked state, saying, he has a car crash,
and he's on the freeway.
And I had no idea which freeway, where he is.
And I was quite panicked.
And I didn't want to call him back because I
knew he was in the middle of it.
But now with the updates to car crash, I would get his location.
And that way I'd least know, because I was like, OK,
I'm going to leave the house, but where do I go?
Do I go north?
Do I go south?
Which freeway do I hit?
And it was quite a panicked moment.
But now, I would have that with car crash detection.
So I have to pick that as one that's going to help so many people.
Rasheed: Of course, Shenaz.
Can I just check quickly that everything is OK with him?
Shenaz: Yes, thankfully, everything with him and his friends in the car is OK.
The car did get totaled, but they're all safe.
They were actually coming back from prom, which--
when they had an accident.
So it was quite sad.
But a prom to remember, because they're all healthy, and everybody was fine.
Rasheed: And their mom helped create a car crash detection.
That's some sort of a proud moment for you, that-- that-- that in a way,
you contributed to his safety in that way, and many others.
Shenaz: And many others, mom helped facilitate this,
with so many other teams contributing to it.
But yeah, it helped me with the peace of mind, right, seeing that.
Rasheed: Definitely, yeah.
Shenaz: Another one, which is very different-- and you asked me
about that-- is the cinematic wallpaper, which
brings my furry baby picture, my dog, Simba, into life every time
I look at my phone.
And it just makes me feel good.
And so I would say, that's another one for me.
Rasheed: I cannot wait to try a cinematic wallpaper.
So I'm just going to update my phone and my watch and everything,
make sure I have the June feature drop on there,
and try cinematic wallpaper and all these other features.
Shenaz, thank you so much for coming back to the Made by Google podcast.
Shenaz: Thank you, Rasheed.
I'm so glad I can come and talk and represent
so many people's work that goes into bringing these amazing feature
drops to our users.
So-- so thank you, thank you, thank you.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
Rasheed: Well, there's a lot to unpack for you if you're in the Pixel
universe, from scheduling safety checks, to cinematic wallpapers,
and from better health tracking to faster music controls on your wearable.
There's something for everyone in the June feature drop.
Next time, we're checking in with the Home team.
If you remember from last season, we talked
about a brand new Google Home app, and now that it's here,
I want to learn more about it.
So if that's you, too, do subscribe to the Made by Google podcast,
and you'll find our latest episodes right in your podcasting app.
Thanks for listening.
Take care and talk soon.