GOOGLE has revealed a selection of free updates beaming down to your Android phone.
They add new artificial intelligence features, and even help you identify spam phone calls.
The upgrades are coming specifically to Google's Pixel devices.
These are Google's own-brand smartphones powered by Android.
PIXEL UPGRADES
First on the list is the introduction of Gemini Nano to Google's Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a.
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Google explains, "Gemini Nano is Google’s most efficient AI model built for on-device tasks.
"And starting today, you can use Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a to access Gemini Nano as a developer option. You can enable developer options in your Pixel’s settings."
Secondly, the Summarize feature in Google' s Recorder app is now powered by Gemini on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a, allowing it to serve up "more detailed and downloadable summaries."
"It’s able to detect and include the names of speakers so conversational transcripts are improved," Google said.
"And with the ability to export transcripts into text files or Google Docs, keeping track of things like interviews and class lectures is made easy."
You can now display content on bigger screens with Pixel 8a, Pixel 8, and Pixel 8 Pro.
Just plug into a monitor via USB-C.
Find My Device will now let you locate your phone if it's switched off – even if the battery is dead.
There's a new Pixel camera feature that automatically identifies "the best moment from your photo" in HDR+ so it's simpler to get a photo of you in focus and smiling.
If you don't recognize a phone number, you can now reverse-search it directly from your call log.
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And finally, it's now possible to manually choose the camera lens you want to use while taking photos.
Google says this gives you "more control" for getting the perfect shot.
FAN FAVORITES
Fans reacted very positively to the news.
In fact, the blog post earned hundreds of upvotes on the official Android subreddit.
One Pixel phone owner wrote, "Lens selection is huge for me.
"Getting the telephoto to trigger is just so finicky sometimes, even when there's enough light.
"Also, number look-up will save me a few taps. Looking forward to that, as well."
Another replied, "YES! We recently got a small aquarium.
"And getting a macro shot, the camera software CONSTANTLY switches between a good lens and a less decent lens for the given closeup.
"And somehow invariably picks the worse lens when I actually take the photo."
"I feel like we just got a feature drop or was that something else. But honestly solid stuff. Love the manual lens feature," another said.
