Google’s updates for their Pixel devices, called Feature Drops, arrive every few months and this December, the company decided to play Santa and gift us a final Feature Drop before year end.
This Feature Drop comes with numerous features and fixes such as VPN by Google One for extra security while browsing, Clear Calling, a smarter recorder, and more.
VPN by Google One is here to protect your online activity without any extra cost.
With numerous hacking horror stories this year, this feature is a blessing for many.
VPN by Google One establishes an “encrypted tunnel” between your device and a remote VPN server, making it tough for anyone to track you or your exact location.
Clear calling is another feature Google has dropped. With Clear calling, Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro enhances the other person’s voice while reducing their background noise, letting us pick up on their words with ease. This has been made possible with Tensor G2.
There are obviously other factors at play here, such as Wi-Fi connection or mobile network coverage, so it would not be wise to rely solely on this feature for better clarity during calls.
It was previously only available to Google One members on Premium plans (2 TB and higher).
The updates have also made recording and transcribing conversations on Pixel easier. If the conversation is in English, Recorder can identify and label each speaker and inserts line breaks when the speaker changes.
You can record an interview, lecture, or conversation with each person labeled individually. This feature uses machine learning to process speaker labeling live and on-device, so you can watch it work as you record.
And once the recording is complete, you can easily re-label speakers with their names. This update is also available on Pixel 6.
Besides these major changes, Fitbit Sleep Profile has been made available for Pixel Watch to track your sleep cycle.
Digital car key — a feature that lets you lock, unlock and start a compatible car using just your phone — can now be shared with friends and family across Pixel, iPhone, and select phones with Android 12+ (soon to be).
Besides these new features, another exciting news surround Google’s first-ever foldable.
Codenamed ‘Felix’, the foldable which had been under wraps for over two years now, has finally been spotted on the Geekbench databench in all its glory.
The device will be powered by a Tensor G2 SoC that is found on the flagship Pixel 7 series.
The chipset has two high-performance cores clocked at 2.85GHz, two silver cores at 2.35GHz, and four efficiency cores at 1.87GHz.
With a resolution of 1,840 x 2,208 pixels, up to 1,200 nits peak brightness, and a refresh rate of 120Hz, the Pixel Fold is tipped to pack 12GB RAM and run on Android 13 OS out of the box.
