All articles tagged with #call screen
Google announced that two popular Pixel phone features, Call Screen and Call Notes, will soon be available on Android Auto, enhancing call management and note-taking while driving, with Call Notes arriving later this year and Call Screen's timeline still unspecified.
iOS 26 introduces features similar to Android, such as Call Screening and Hold Assist, enhancing user experience by reducing spam calls and wait times, and also offers improvements to CarPlay with a new customizable interface and Live Activities, reflecting a trend of feature parity between the platforms.
Google has introduced next-gen call screening for some Pixel phones, enhancing the existing Call Screen feature with a new Hello button that allows users to initiate Google Assistant to speak on their behalf and hear the caller's response in real-time. This feature provides users with ultimate control over call screening, including the ability to ask the caller to wait. The update is available for Pixel Fold and Pixel 6 phones and newer, as part of a larger March features drop that includes the ability to share 10-bit HDR videos directly to Instagram and the expansion of the Circle to Search tool to Pixel 7 smartphones.
The Google Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 are receiving a significant software update that brings new features such as Call Screen, which displays a transcript of incoming calls, and Watch Unlock, allowing the watch to unlock a paired Pixel phone. The update also syncs Do Not Disturb and Bedtime Modes between the watch and phone, fixes an image retention issue, and includes a security patch. Users can check for the update in the Settings app on their Pixel Watch.
Google has released its December Feature Drop for Pixel devices, introducing several new features and improvements. Exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro is the Gemini Nano AI model, powering the new Summarize feature in the Recorder app and Smart Reply in Gboard. The Pixel 8 Pro also receives Video Boost, which enhances video quality, and Night Sight Video for low-light recording. Other updates include improved Portrait light and Photo Unblur, Dual Screen Preview for the Pixel Fold, Clean feature for scanned documents, Repair Mode for secure repairs, and smarter replies in Call Screen. The update is available for various Pixel devices, but not all features are available on all models.
Google is changing the Call Screen settings on Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 models, giving users three "Protection Level" options to combat unwanted calls. The new settings combine all options into three levels of protection, making controls less granular. Users can choose to screen unknown numbers and decline spam, screen suspicious calls and decline spam, or decline only known spam. The new menu was spotted in version 106.0.534575879 of the Google Phone app, but the rollout seems to be limited.
The upcoming Pixel 8 could feature an improved Call Screen that uses AI to stop spam calls from ringing through. Google is working on using conversational AI to make business calls more productive, personal calls more delightful, and to eliminate spam calls. The head of the Dialer team says that conversational AI could take Call Screen to the next level, and something new to combat unwanted calls will be released this year. The Pixel 8 line is expected to have the advantage of being powered by the Google Tensor 3 chipset.
Google is teasing more advanced Pixel Call Screen capabilities that take advantage of conversational AI to solve the problem of unwanted calls, from spam to robocalling. The company wants to create a future where users are never annoyed by incoming calls and can assume they are important or delightful. Multi-step, multi-turn conversational AI could create a protective and helpful layer at the front of every incoming call. The upcoming Pixel 8 launch this fall seems like a likely time for Google to add more AI to Pixel phones.