Car Crash Detection could soon be making its way to non-Pixel devices

Back in 2019, Google introduced a new safety feature in the form of car crash detection which relies on the sensors in a smartphone to detect when the user might have been involved in a collision. The feature was only available for Pixel devices at that time, but it could be changing soon.

According to an APK teardown by 9to5Google, they found some changes in the Personal Safety app (a Pixel exclusive app) that suggests that Google could be expanding the feature to non-Pixel phones. This is based on strings they discovered in the code which makes references to “nonpixel” phones.

It also made some changes where instead of saying “Pixel”, it has become more generic and just mentions “Your device”. The APK teardown has also revealed that other Personal Safety features could soon be losing their Pixel-exclusivity, like “crisis alerts” and “safety check”.

That being said, it is unclear how these features are expected to make their way to non-Pixel smartphones. 9to5Google speculates that due to the sensitive permissions the features require, Google could make it available through Google Play Services that already has the necessary permissions on Android phones.

Also, there is the question of compatibility and if there might be some kind of minimum hardware or software requirement for these features to work, but it’s something we’ll have to wait and see if and when Google officially announces it.

Source: 9to5Google