Not so long ago, Google announced that the Android 11 Beta online event will be delayed, much to the disappointment of many of the tech enthusiasts. Whether it is related to the never-ending COVID-19 pandemic slowing things down or because of the ongoing protests and riots in the United States is yet to be known. That didn’t stop Google from pushing another Pixel Feature Drop though, bringing a bunch of new features to the Pixel 2, 3, and 4 series.
Adaptive Battery
One of the key beneficiaries of the June feature drop is battery life. Thanks to the latest update, Pixel 2 (and newer devices) will be able to predict when will your battery run out and reduce your phone’s background activity accordingly to further prolong usage.
New Bedtime tab
Pixel devices will now have a new Bedtime tab in the Clock app helping to maintain a more consistent sleep schedule. After setting your schedule, your phone will help you to wind down by limiting interruptions and play calming sounds to help you doze off. You can also view how much time you spent on which apps in bed, making use of Digital Wellbeing on your phone. It also appears that the navbar will be moved to the bottom of the screen (finally).
New Recorder features
Another beneficiary of the feature drop update is the Recorder app. Now, the Recorder app will work in tandem with the Google Assistant and Google Docs. You can start recording by simply saying “Hey Google, start recording my meeting”. The phone will respond to this command by opening the Recorder app and recording promptly. Also, there is now the option to save a transcript of your recording directly on Google Docs, making it much easier to share your transcript with others.
New safety features
First, the Personal Safety app will be now available on all Pixel devices, with car crash detection being available on the Pixel 3. Also, Google is bringing a new safety check feature to the app, which schedules a check-in at a later time. Should you fail to confirm that you’re okay after your hike, select contacts will be alerted and notified of your real-time location. Lastly, your phone will now alert you to natural disasters, thanks to the new crisis alerts feature.
Compared to the previous feature drops, this might seem a little bit light in comparison. The previous feature drops arguably brought much more to the table. If there is anything to blame, it surely must be the nature of working from home, thanks to the ongoing lockdown. We hope it won’t impact the launch of their upcoming Pixel 4a though. If you own a Pixel 2 or a newer device, you should expect to receive all these features from the Play Store, along with the latest security patch pretty soon.
Source: Google
