Google just gifted its pixel users and nice little Christmas gift in the form
of the first-ever Google Pixel feature drop. In this feature drop, we've got
features like improved audio quality with Google Duo calls, you can now add a
blurred background into any photo through Google Photos, and my favorite
feature, automatic call screening with the Google Assistant. But that's not all,
there's actually quite a few more features that Google has packed into
this first ever Pixel feature drop so let's dive in. First you'll of course
need to download the latest software update. Once you've done that, you can now
take advantage of these great features and first let's talk about the new
Photos feature called portrait blur. In Google Photos you can now add a blur to
the background of any photo on your pixel regardless of if you had portrait
mode enabled when you took the photo or if you took the photo on another device
like a DSLR camera. Simply go into your photos, tap the photo you'd like to blur
the background of, tap Edit and then adjust the blur amount. If you already
have a portrait photo you took with your Pixel but you want to adjust the blur
amount further, you have the ability to do this in Google Photos as well. Next up,
let's talk about the latest update to call screening. Now this update only
applies to the Google Pixel 4 and Google Pixel 4XL in the United States
starting off and what this expanded feature does is the Pixel will basically
take a look at any phone number that is calling you that looks like it could be
a robocall or just an undetected number, it is going to screen that call before
your phone ever rings. When the Assistant determines the undetected phone number
is a legitimate call, your phone will ring and give you context to who is
calling and why. Call Screen utilizes the on device capabilities of the Google
Assistant on the Google Pixel 4 and Google Pixel 4XL and what that
means is it doesn't utilize any cellular or Wi-Fi data to do the transcription of
the call and it also gives you the privacy of not having that call
transcript uploaded to the cloud. Next up, Google made some improvements
for the Pixel 4 with Duo calls. Auto framing keeps your face centered during
Duo video calls thanks to the Pixel 4's wide-angle front-facing camera. If
another person joins your shot the camera will zoom out to keep you both in
frame, very similar to the way the Nest Hub Max's camera works with Google Duo
video calls. Now Google has also tweaked the performance of Google Duo calls for
the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. Now, when there's a bad connection that leads to
spotty audio, machine learning on the phone we'll predict the next likely
sound and help keep that conversation going. The smooth display will also
reduce the choppiness of the video feed refreshing up to 90 times a second.
Another cool feature added for Duo video calls for the pixel 2, 3, & 4 is that you
can now blur out your background of your call to hide your messy bedroom or busy
office space. Now if it seems like most of the features i've been talking about
so far only apply to the Google Pixel 4 & 4 XL, don't worry if you have an older
Pixel device Google's got you covered here as well. First up, let's talk about
the recorder app. This debuted on the Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL it utilizes on-
device language processing to, in real-time, transcribe what you're saying
within the app in a live caption feature and it works incredibly well. I'm happy
to say that this app is now coming to older versions of the Pixel devices.
Pixel 3 and 3a users will be getting the live caption feature and focus mode is
now rolling out to older devices, as well as flip to Sssshh.
Next up, the new English version of the Google Assistant on the Pixel 4 & 4 XL
will be rolling out to Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, and Australia.
Location accuracy on Google Maps will now be getting better with the Pixel 4 &
4 XL thanks to this feature update as well. Lastly I want to talk about a new
feature coming to all Pixel devices and this is a new memory
feature. Google is for the first time putting out a feature like this which
allows your Pixel device to proactively compress cached apps allowing you to run
multiple applications at the same time like gaming and streaming content. Well
that's it for our first ever Google Pixel feature drop video, if you
liked this video, make sure to hit that thumbs up button below, and subscribe to
the channel if you'd like to see more Pixel videos or Google videos like this
one. Well, for 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.