Google’s latest Pixel Feature Drop arrives for everyone except Pixel 6 and 6 Pro owners
We already expected Google to drop the March 2022 Android Security Bulletin today, and the company didn’t disappoint. But Google also has a bit more fun to spread around as we’re getting the latest Pixel Feature Drop. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a catch, as the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are left out of the fun, yet again.
https://youtu.be/nvXR–VSosE
In the announcement post, Google states that the March Feature Drop is rolling out to owners of devices between the Pixel 3a and Pixel 5a (5G) starting today. However, Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro devices won’t receive the update until “later this month”. It’s just another frustrating experience for those who jumped at the chance to get Google’s latest flagship model and adds insult to injury following a myriad of problems that continue to plague devices.
Moving onto better things, here’s a breakdown of what’s new in the March Feature Drop:
- Night Sight in Snapchat: Now we’re bringing Night Sight to Snapchat so you can snap vibrant, detailed, low-light videos or photos without flash.
- Communicating with captions: Now when you’re on a phone call you can see captions of what the other person says and type back a response that will be read out loud on the other end.
- Make messages and video calls more fun: With emoji, emoji kitchen and custom sticker suggestions while you type your Pixel helps you express exactly how you feel. Host your own YouTube watch parties or share your favorite app with live sharing for Duo, all on your Pixel phone.
- More languages. More ways to translate: Live Translateon Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro makes communicating in different languages easy And with Interpreter mode, you can now translate your face-to-face conversations with Spanish, Italian and French speakers right on your phone, as all translations stay on device.
- Direct My Call and Wait Times will now be available for Pixel 3a and newer phones.
- Recorder can now transcribe in Italian and Spanish on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
- Assistant Quick phrases will be available in Spanish, Italian and French on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro
Another new feature arriving for Pixel devices is the Pixel battery widget that was first spotted last year. Until now, this widget has been missing, and Google is now making it easy to keep track of the battery life for your phone and other connected devices right from your home screen.
As we mentioned before, the update is rolling out to owners of devices ranging from the Pixel 3a to the Pixel 5a (5G). Google will be bringing this update to Pixel 6 owners later this month, and provided the following statement to Android Police regarding the delayed-release:
Our goal is to provide high quality software updates in a timely manner for all Pixel users. The cadence of these rollouts can be impacted by a number of factors, for example, internal validation testing, bug fixes, and approvals from carrier partners for each software build on each Pixel model.
Naturally, this doesn’t really mean all that much, but there definitely seems to be something going on when it comes to Google’s software in conjunction with the Tensor chip. Hopefully, these problems can get worked out sooner rather than later. But considering that the Pixel 6 has already been available for almost six months, this leaves us feeling even more disappointed.