Google’s December Pixel Feature Drop is all about Pixel 9

It’s that time: the December Feature Drop for Pixel devices is here. Rolling out beginning today, Android 15’s first major feature expansion brings a number of improvements to Google’s devices — Pixel phones, Pixel Watches, and the Pixel Tablet are all picking up new functionality. Much of this month’s Feature Drop is to the benefit of Google’s latest devices, but there’s still a few goodies for older Pixel phones and watches, too. Here are all the biggest changes coming to your Pixel device this month.

Lots of new stuff for Pixel 9, but some updates for older phones too

Call Screen is getting a boost on the Pixel 9 series. Using Gemini Nano, Call Screen can now suggest bespoke replies, tailored to the context of what the caller is saying — for example, you’ll see options to reply yes or no to questions the caller asks. This feature requires a Pixel 9 phone with Gemini Nano models downloaded.

Call Screen on older Pixel phones will benefit from this Pixel Drop too, though. Pixel 6 and newer will be able to look at the exchange between the caller and Google’s AI during calls that are automatically screened — a good option if you suspect an automatically screened call might not actually be spam.

The Clear Voice Mode for Pixel Recorder that we reported on earlier this week is officially coming to Pixel 9 phones with the December drop. With Clear Voice Mode turned on, Pixel Recorder will do its best to isolate voices in recordings, minimizing background noise and making it easier to follow recorded speech.

The Pixel 9 Screenshots app is also getting a bunch of updates. Segments of your screen that you highlight using Circle to Search can now be saved into Pixel Screenshots, letting you better review your visual search history. You’ll also be able to add screenshots of things like tickets and boarding passes to Google Wallet using the Pixel Screenshots app. Gboard will also begin providing text suggestions based on the contents of your Screenshots app when you’re “searching in relevant apps” — so if you screenshot, say, an album cover, that album’s name may show up as a suggestion in Gboard when you open the search field in Spotify.

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Speaking of Gboard: on Pixel 9 phones, you’ll be able to insert stickers created in the Pixel Studio app directly from your keyboard, making it all the easier to bother your friends and colleagues with AI abominations.

While Instagram has supported HDR photo uploads for some time, with the December Pixel Feature Drop update, you’ll now be able to take Ultra HDR photos inside the Instagram app itself. This feature, like many of the others Google announced today, appears to be exclusive to the Pixel 9 series.

On the foldable side, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s Made You Look mode that plays colorful animations on the phone’s outer display to get better pictures of young kids is expanding to the first-generation Pixel Fold. The second-gen foldable is getting an exclusive new Made You Look feature, though: there’ll be an option to play animations starring the character of Joy from Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out until December 3 of next year. I’m not sure why that option isn’t extending to the original Fold, but it’s possible it’ll arrive on that device in a later update.

There are a couple of small but appreciated enhancements to the general Pixel experience coming, as well, for all Pixel phones going back to the Pixel 6. A new feature Google calls Identity Check is launching in beta. With Identity Check, you’ll be prompted to re-enter your screen lock before changing certain device settings when your phone detects you’re in a new location.

Pixel phones are getting a new Simple View option that “increases your phone’s font size and touch sensitivity,” which should help users with limited dexterity or vision better navigate their devices. Finally, Pixel’s handy Now Playing feature that automatically identifies music around you will include album art in the history section — a minor change indeed, but a welcome one.

The Pixel Watch and Pixel Tablet get in on the fun

It’s not entirely about Pixel phones, though. Google announced a handful of updates for its watches and the Pixel Tablet, too.

The Pixel Watch 3’s formerly exclusive Cardio Load features that measure how hard your heart works day to day and can provide goals crafted around that metric are coming to both previous generations of Pixel Watch, as well as most newer Fitbit trackers, including the Charge 6, Sense 2, Versa 4, Inspire 3, Luxe, and more. The Loss of Pulse Detection feature Google highlighted in the run-up to the Pixel Watch 3’s release, meanwhile, is still exclusive to the Pixel Watch 3, but will now be available in Germany and Portugal. (We still don’t know when or if to expect that feature in the US.)

The ability to view live streams from select Nest cameras on Pixel Watch is expanding. Previously only an option on Pixel Watch 3, you’ll now be able to see a live view of your compatible Nest camera on the Pixel Watch 2, as well.

On Pixel Tablet, the lockscreen widgets we’ve seen in the Android 15 QPR beta are rolling out broadly. Lockscreen widgets are more limited than home screen widgets, but depending on how you use your tablet, they can still be helpful. With this Pixel Drop release, Google is also highlighting that its VPN is available on Pixel Tablet, though that’s actually been the case since last month.

The December Pixel Feature Drop is rolling out beginning today

The latest Pixel Drop update is available beginning today for Pixel phones running Android 15 — that’d be the Pixel 6 and newer — as well as the Pixel Tablet and all three Pixel Watch generations. In addition to these Pixel-exclusive features, Google’s also announced a raft of new goodies coming soon to Android generally, including an update to live captions Google calls Expressive Captions.

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