The Google Pixel 9 series has been confirmed to be unveiled by the company on August 13. Ahead of the launch, a new report has revealed three new artificial intelligence (AI) features that may come with the smartphone. These features are reported to ship under the 'Google AI' branding, a first for the smartphone series. A new screenshots feature is part of the trio, and based on its reported description, it appears to be a slightly different take on Microsoft's recently announced AI Recall feature for its Copilot+ PCs.
It looks like the Google Pixel 9 will get a memory-like AI screenshot feature
Microsoft introduced an AI-based feature called Recall in May. Captures periodic screenshots of the computer and stores them to create a chronological record of user activity on the device. Later, when the user asks the AI about what they were doing on a given day and time, the device's AI can process the information from the screenshot database and share it.
However, the feature drew criticism due to its privacy-intrusive nature and lack of security and encryption. In particular, Microsoft has promised to add several security features and delayed the launch of Recall.
Google AI screenshot feature
Photo credit: Android Authority
But Google's take on the feature is a little different, according to a report from the Android Authority. It has been reported that the smartphone does not take screenshots by itself, instead it stores the manually taken screenshots with some additional metadata. These will include information such as the app name, web links, and more. An AI on the device, which could be the Gemini Nano AI model, will then process these images and answer user queries around them, the report said citing an unnamed source.
While the exact implementation and use case for the feature is currently unknown, the Screenshots feature could provide a way for users to get organized and get quick information from stored screenshots.
Other Google AI features are reportedly coming next month
According to the report, two more Google AI features are also coming along with AI screenshots. The first of these is Add Me. A description of the feature in an image shared by the publication reads: “Make sure everyone is included in a group photo.” Based on this information, the feature appears to be a follow-up to last year's Best Take feature that enhances people's expressions in a group photo. Add Me could help users in situations where a certain group photo has a couple of missing members. Users may be able to take other group photos and combine them with the target photo to add the missing members.
Google AI Features
Photo credit: Android Authority
Another feature is called Studio, with a description that says “You imagine it. Pixel creates it.” While the description makes it sound like a generic AI image generator, the report claims it could do more than that, allowing users to edit images and create stickers as well. If this turns out to be true, then the feature would be similar to Apple's AI-powered Image Playground feature announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024 in June.
Apart from this, the shared screenshot also highlights that Circle to Search and the built-in Gemini AI assistant will also ship as part of Google AI when the Pixel 9 series arrives.
