Google announced the November software update for Pixel phones, called Pixel Drop — a quarterly release that brings new features to existing devices — with features like notification summaries, a power-saving mode for the Maps app, prompt-based photo edits, and Nano-powered Gemini photo edits in Messages.
Apple introduced notification summaries with its Apple Intelligence suite of features last year. Now, Google is moving forward with its own notification summaries for longer chats and conversations on Pixel 9 and later devices. The company said that in December, it would roll out a feature that would silence low-priority notifications. In comparison, Apple has a priority notification feature that highlights important notifications.
Google is introducing a new low-power mode for its Maps app that will dim the screen and only show important information, including your navigation route and next-turn details. The company said that with this feature, which will be available to users of the Pixel 10 series, you can save up to four hours of battery life.
The company previously introduced fraud detection for phone calls using the Gemini Nano and on-device speech detection for US users with Pixel 9 and newer models. It is now expanding this feature to users in the UK, Ireland, India, Australia and Canada.
Google is also adding a way to indicate when a message is potentially fraudulent by including a “Possible Fraud” button in the message notification. This is based on the company’s existing capability that analyzes the content of a message and detects spam or fraud.
The company Nano Banana The image model was popular with users. It now adds a feature called Remix, supported by this model along with Gemini in the Messages app, which lets you take a photo and reimagine it using prompts. The feature is available to users in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, India, Ireland and New Zealand with RCS enabled and English language support.
Google added a Pixel VIP feature in June that lets you designate eight of your closest contacts and receive updates from them via a home screen widget. With the November Pixel Drop, notifications from these contacts will take priority. Additionally, if an incident such as a flood has occurred in the area where they live, you will see a crisis signal in the contacts widget.
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The company is also adding a new AI-powered editing feature for Google Photos. Users can tap “Help me edit” and ask Photos to “Remove Riley’s sunglasses, open my eyes, make Engel smile and open her eyes.” The feature will use Google Photo’s Face Groups feature to recognize people and apply edits.
The November drop also extends support for a call transcription feature, called Call Notes, to Australia, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Japan. And it brings a “Wicked: For Good” theme pack with new wallpapers, icons, system sounds and GIFs based on the movie for Pixel 6 devices and above.
