New for Pixel: Starry night clips, Pride wallpapers and more
Google’s latest Feature Drop is making your Pixel smarter and more fun, while also helping you feel safer, too. From Locked Folders to expanding some features to more countries to short videos in astrophotography, there’s a lot to unpack.
Summertime fun for Pixel
Pixel owners love using astrophotography in Night Sight to take incredible photos of the night sky, and now it’s getting even better. You can now create videos of the stars moving across the sky all during the same exposure. Once you take a photo in Night Sight, both the photo and video will be saved in your camera roll. Try waiting longer to capture even more of the stars in your video. This feature is available on Pixel 4 and newer phones and you can learn more at g.co/pixel/astrophotography.
Pride events across many parts of the world kick-off in June, and Pixel has new wallpapers and ringtones to celebrate. Three bold, joyful wallpaper designs were created exclusively for Pixel by Ashton Attzs. Check out new Pride-themed ringtones and notifications created by other LGBTQ+ artists and YouTube Creators.
More privacy, more safety
Last month at Google I/O they previewed Locked Folder in Google Photos, which is now rolling out to Pixel users. For photos and videos that need a little extra privacy — like pictures of an upcoming gift for a loved one, or screenshots of your recent receipts — you can save them to the new Locked Folder. To make it even easier to add photos and videos to Locked Folder on Pixel, you can choose to save them there straight from the camera. They’re saved on your device and won’t show up in shared albums, Memories or any other apps on your device, and can only be accessed using your device passcode or fingerprint.
Pixel’s car crash detection has already helped people in serious car accidents, and now it’s expanding to more areas. Pixel users in Spain, Ireland and Singapore will now have car crash detection capabilities in the Personal Safety app. The feature can help detect if you’ve been in a severe accident and will check in to see if you’re OK. If there’s no response, your Pixel can automatically call emergency responders and share your location and other relevant details. Car crash detection is already available in the U.K., Australia and the U.S. This feature is dependent upon network connectivity and other factors and may not be reliable for emergency communications or available in all areas. To learn more, visit the Help Center.
Pixel can also help you stay alert while walking. With the new Heads Up feature inside Digital Wellbeing settings, your Pixel can detect when you’re walking and periodically remind you to look up from your screen.
Your Pixel keeps getting smarter
When your phone is ringing but isn’t within reach, you can answer or reject a call with Google Assistant. Say “Hey Google, answer call” or “Hey Google, reject call.”
Cutting and pasting important information also just got easier thanks to an even smarter Gboard. When you copy text that includes a phone number, email address or URL, you’ll see those key snippets of text suggested in the clipboard. You can easily drop them into places like Messages to share contact information quickly, or Maps to get started on your road trip faster. For more information, including language availability, see g.co/gboard/clipboard.
Google are always working to bring helpful Pixel phone and voice features to more languages and dialects. Call Screen, which helps you avoid spam calls by answering unknown numbers to find out who’s calling and why, is now available in Japan. Recorder, the app that transcribes audio into text so you can search, edit and share your recordings, will be available in more English dialects including Singaporean, Australian, Irish and British English. The Recorder expansion will roll out to all Pixel 3 or newer phones by the end of July.
Please help…
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photographer, photography journalist, editor and curator and the founder and editorial director of TheAppWhisperer.com, an independent international photography publication established in 2009.Her journalism, criticism and commentary have appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, BBC, Vogue Italia, LensCulture, Popular Photography, Android Magazine, NikonPro, DPReview, Which Digital Camera and Which Camera. She has lectured internationally on photography and mobile art, served as a juror for international photography awards, and exhibited her own photographic work across the UK, Europe, South Korea and the United States.Alongside her editorial work, Joanne's photographic and postgraduate research explores death, grief, memory, representation and social inequality through contemporary photography, participatory practice and visual research methods, with the longer-term aim of developing this work through doctoral research.Through TheAppWhisperer, she continues to publish independent photography journalism spanning contemporary photographic practice, mobile imaging, photographic apps, computational photography and emerging imaging technologies.Joanne is available for editorial commissions, photography projects, judging, curatorial work, speaking engagements, consultancy and selected collaborations.
