Google is working on a couple of features that will make you spend much less time interacting with your Pixel phone.
As the days tick down to the next Made by Google event, at which the Google Pixel 11 series will be launched, news has reached us of a couple of labour-saving Android features in the works.
Telegram user Brokenthrone has shared materials with Android Authority showing a new experimental Device Help feature that’s seemingly being constructed within the Gemini app.
The idea seems to be that rather than traipsing through the Settings menu (always a daunting task), you’ll be able to tell Gemini what’s wrong with your phone in natural language, and it’ll figure out a fix.
Android Authority
The example provided shows the Pixel user telling Gemini that “My screen is too yellow”, which causes Gemini to examine the device’s settings and inform the user that the Night Light feature is likely to blame.
Just for clarification, the key breakthrough here is that Gemini appears to be accessing your Settings rather than providing generic advice for you to then action.
The feature appears to be operating under the Labs label right now, which means it’s still under development. We’ll be keeping an eye out for this one, though, as it could be genuinely useful.
Given Google’s recent confirmation via email that its Google Assistant will finally be put out to pasture on 4 September (though “this process may take a few weeks to reach everyone”), we can expect Gemini to burrow ever deeper into the Pixel experience.
Pixel lock screen
In another Android Authority report, we learn that it could soon be a lot more convenient to launch apps on your Pixel phone.
Android 17 QPR2 Beta 2 contains references to “App Launch Shortcut”, which seems to do exactly what it suggests. Much as you can fire the camera or torch up without unlocking your phone, you could soon be able to open up an app directly from your lock screen.
Chris Martin / Foundy
Discovered code suggests that there will soon be more lock screen shortcut options, as well as the ability to add more than one such app shortcut at a time.
As the report points out, this could be seen as Google addressing an inherent limitation of its Pixel UI compared to its third-party Android partners. Lock screen widgets aren’t a thing on Pixel in the way that they are on Samsung’s phones, for example.
However, there are also references to “Quick Affordances,” which are described as “interactive UI elements that appear on the lock screen.” Scanning a QR code or drafting a message could become much snappier on a future version of Android – and it looks as if Pixel users will benefit first.
from Tech Advisor
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