Google Pixel 9 phones: All the AI ​​features

Google’s Pixel 9 lineup is officially here, and the company can’t stop talking about the upcoming AI features.

As far as hardware goes, Google has increased the RAM of all its new phones to accommodate the memory-intensive on-device AI. The Pixel 9 has received 12 GB of RAM, while the rest will have 16 GB of memory.

But the bigger side of the story is the software – all phones get a handful of new AI features exclusive to the Pixel. And Pro phones will also receive a year of Google One AI Premium, which comes with access to Gemini Advanced, Google’s most capable AI system.

Here’s a roundup of the Pixel 9’s biggest AI features that Google announced today.

Google’s new Pixel Screenshots feature is a bit like Microsoft’s Recall feature, which uses AI to track everything you do on your computer through constant screenshots, except it’s more manual. If you want to keep track of something like an event you’re planning with friends or a recipe you’re making for dinner, you can take a screenshot and look up the information in conversation later. Google says this is an exclusive Pixel device.

Google also took a cue from Apple, giving Gemini the ability to respond to you based on what’s on your phone’s screen when you ask. The company claims that after summoning Gemini, you can tap “Ask about this screen” or “Ask about this video” to direct the model to what you’re seeing for contextual answers. Google says this means Gemini can do things like add a list of restaurants from a YouTube travel video to Google Maps.

Gemini will be faster as a voice assistant, Google says, thanks to new models like Gemini 1.5 Flash. The company claims that this model also offers higher quality responses and will not make mistakes as often as previous versions of the assistant. Google is also adding more extensions to Gemini, so it can pull information from — or do things in — apps like Keep, Tasks, Utilities, and Google Calendar.

Google is launching its own version of ChatGPT voice chat called Gemini Live. The company claims the feature allows for natural conversation, so you can stop Gemini mid-sentence or pause a conversation and resume it later. Gemini Live will work even if your screen is locked, says Google. However, it is only available to Gemini Advanced subscribers.

Google is adding a new Magic Editor option to “reimagine” a photo by typing in what you want to see and letting the app transform parts of the image. So if you want, you can completely replace the sky or other aspects of a background by depicting something entirely different. Who needs a perfect day when you can make one, I guess?

Along with the same “what is a photo?” Just like the new Magic Editor feature, the Pixel 9 camera’s “Add Me” option lets you easily take group photos without bothering strangers to do it for you. Just take a photo of your friends, hand over your phone and walk into the same place they were, and the camera will stitch the two images together afterwards.

A new Pixel Studio app lets you create illustrations using text instructions. You’ll need to be connected to the internet for this feature – it doesn’t work on the device like the others.

Google is adding what it says is an AI-powered ability to share parts of an image or your screen when you use Circle to Search. After circling the part you want, you can tap a new share button to send it via text – basically, it’s cutting out part of an image to share, but without all the usual hassle of editing an image.

Google’s new Pixel Weather app will offer AI-generated weather reports.

Google will use AI to create call summaries after you hang up. Google says this is useful for extracting details from a call, citing the example of being referred to a new barbershop and forgetting to write down the phone number. The company says that calls and summaries are “never sent to the cloud” and that it notifies all call participants before transcribing and summarizing it.