Google’s annual Made by Google hardware event took place early Tuesday, and the company announced so many things that many got lost in the shuffle. We’ve rounded up some of the more interesting AI-related announcements that didn’t get much attention, like Pixel Studio, which generates images, and Pixel Screenshots, which helps you store and organize information in your screenshots.
Call notes summarize conversations.
For people like me who have poor short-term memory, the call memo feature can be a useful feature.
Call Notes, available on the Pixel 9 line of phones, saves a summary of your call conversation after it’s been made. Details and conversation content are saved to your phone’s call history.
Now, if that sounds like a potential privacy nightmare, you’re not wrong. Google says Call Notes runs entirely on the device and notifies everyone on the call when a recording is in progress. But security experts will have to weigh in.
Pixel Studio is a new image creation app.
Available exclusively on the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel Studio is an image creation app that powers both on-device generated AI models and Google’s Imagen 3 model that runs in the cloud. With Pixel Studio, you can input prompts to create creative animations, add stickers, and edit and change them after the fact.
Artworks created in Pixel Studio require a stable Internet connection to use despite the on-device components, but can be shared with contacts via Google Messages.
Google PR told my colleague Ivan Mehta that Pixel Studio can’t yet generate human faces, presumably because of Gemini’s unfortunate misstep earlier this year. But the spokesperson wouldn’t say whether there are other safeguards in place to prevent the app from generating potentially harmful images.
Pixel screenshots are searchable.
If you’re like me, you’re free to take screenshots of your tickets, QR codes, boarding passes, etc. for easy access later. However, screenshots aren’t very searchable, so they can be a real pain when you’re trying to find something specific.
Luckily for those of you who will soon own a Pixel 9, there’s a new app called Pixel Screenshots that uses AI to analyze the content of your screenshots, including captured text, people, and objects. Google Photos already does this, but Pixel Screenshots does it locally.
Google offers this colorful example: “Let's say your friend who loves squirrels has a birthday coming up. You can look for gifts in Google Chrome and take screenshots of squirrel shirts, squirrel coasters, and anything else squirrel-related that you think they'd like. Pixel Screenshots analyzes the content of all those images and makes that information discoverable in the app. So all you have to do is open the app and search for 'squirrel,' and these results will come up. Even better, it'll include a summary of what you're looking at, with links to everything and related info.”
Pixel screenshots are also useful for retrieving information such as door codes and addresses from photos.
