Google’s new Pixel update brings battery improvements, Adaptive Sound, and more

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Google today revealed a new Pixel Feature Drop update that brings new features and improvements to the Pixel 3 and later models. For example, the Pixel 5’s Hold for Me feature is coming to previous Pixel phones, letting you make the Google Assistant wait on hold with a business so you can do other things and then send you an alert when someone’s ready to talk. Google says this saves an average of 8 minutes per call.

There are some new battery-focused features, too. Extreme Battery Saver will automatically limit some apps and only run the essentials to help you push your Pixel’s battery as far as it’ll go.

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Improvements made to Adaptive Battery on the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G can automatically save you more power, and Adaptive Charging will help you preserve your phone’s battery health over time by dynamically controlling how fast your Pixel charges. And Adaptive Connectivity will help you conserve battery life on your Pixel 5 or Pixel 4a 5G by switching between 5G and 4G based on what you’re doing, like using 4G for browsing the web and 5G for watching movies.

Another “Adaptive” new feature is Adaptive Sound. This feature lets your phone use its microphone to analyze the acoustics of your environment and then adjust the sound equalizer in certain apps to help you phone’s speaker sound better.

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App-specific improvements in this update include support for screen-sharing in group video calls with Google Duo and an improved image editor in Google Photos that’ll give you suggestions that are powered by machine learning. This Suggestions tab will help you perform edits and get a better-looking photo with one tap.

Rounding out the new features in this Pixel Feature Drop, there’s more accurate GPS with the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G when you’re on foot, which should come in handy for things like hailing a rideshare service. Your Pixel phone can detect if you’re viewing an app or website in another language and translate it using Google Lens, too, and more personalization features are included that’ll give you new icons, grid views, and app shapes, plus custom wallpapers of famous artworks and original new wallpapers based on “The Mandalorian”.

This new update is now rolling out over the air, so if you’ve got a Google Pixel 3 or later, you should see it hit your phone in the coming days. If you don’t feel like waiting to try out all of these new features, you can jump into your Settings app to check for the update manually, or you can sideload a factory image or OTA image.

If you’ve got a Google Pixel, let us know when this update hits your phone!

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Source: Google

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