Yesterday, Google rolled out the December 2021 Pixel feature drop for devices ranging from the Pixel 3a to the Pixel 5a. If you are a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro owner, don’t worry, your devices will also receive these updates with some additional bug fixes and patches later this month.

So, what’s in this feature update? Well, a lot. The update comes with Google’s latest security patch and hundreds of optimization changes and bug fixes. But let’s focus on the new features introduced in this feature update.

  • Conversation mode for Sound Amplifier

Pixel devices become the first Android phones to gain a conversation mode for the Sound Amplifier Accessibility tool. This feature helps those who are hard of hearing or with hearing impairments. You can use this feature by pointing your phone using a camera UI at any person you want to have a conversation with. The feature will then allow you to pin that person as a participant in the conversation and will provide you with enhanced audio of whatever they say through your Bluetooth headphones while at the same time tuning out background noise.

  • Bass Boost for Pixel Buds A-series

We know that the Pixel Buds A-series TWS earphones have a very neutral sound profile. Now, they finally get the Bass Boost feature allowing them to add a little bit of extra power to their sound output. This feature can be accessed through a slider in the pixel buds app, which allows you to slide the bass levels from -1 to +4.

  • Ultrawide band integration in Nearby Share

With the Android 12 update, Pixel phones gained the nearby share feature, allowing data to be transferred via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, similar to AirDrop. Now, this feature drop will enable the Pixel 6 Pro to use the wideband chip for directed ‘nearby share’ enabling you to send data in a specific direction.

  • Now Playing Search

Pixel-December-Feature-Drop-Save-Now-Playing

The enhanced now playing search feature which has been rolling out to devices for the past month is officially coming to more devices with the December Pixel feature drop. The feature previously worked with an on-device database to identify songs being played near you, allowing it to work offline and to maintain user privacy. This caused the problem of many songs not being recognized due to the limited on-device database. With the new update, if the song is not recognized by your device, a new search music icon will appear on your lock screen. Tapping the icon will transmit the audio data to Google search, making for quick identification of the song.

  • Car crash detection new feature

Car Crash Detection

 

The Google Pixel’s car crash detection feature has been around since 2019 and has helped save multiple lives. With this update, the detection app gets a new feature that allows it to check if you are ‘OK’ in the event of a crash and if there is no response, the Pixel device can share your location and other relevant details with emergency responders. Additionally, this feature gains support in three new regions namely Taiwan, Italy, and France.

  • Google Recorder app update

Google voice recorder

The much-loved recorder app which features transcription capabilities gains support for more languages including Japanese, French, and German. These additional languages that debuted in the Pixel 6 series phones are now available for other supported Pixel devices through this update.

  • Double-tap feature for Snapchat

Quick-Tap-to-Snap-Pixel

Google just added Snapchat to the list of apps supported by Android 12’s Quick Tap feature. The photo-sharing app can now be set up to be accessed via a double-tap gesture to the back of your Pixel device. The feature even works with screen lock, enabling you to capture those sudden moments on your devices. The feature is supported on Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5, and Pixel 6 series devices. Starting from this month, Pixel phones will also get an exclusive ‘Pixel face lens’ filters, that will get more variety via future feature updates.

  • Material You on boot

Image via AndroidPolice

On your first boot after this update, you will notice that the color of your boot logo has changed. The Google logo itself, which appears first, retains its standard brand-identifying colors. But the animation that turns into the Google G (and the associated loading bar) will both pull from your phone’s Material You background colors.

For those unaware, Google‘s new UI, the Material You, introduced with Android 12, is a dynamic theming engine that extracts colors from the current wallpaper and splashes it across the system UI and supported apps, giving users greater control than ever over what their phone’s software looks like.

Other than these major features, Google has also added back the WiFi and internet quick toggle which was for some reason not available since Android 12 launched. You will be able to access the WiFi and Internet toggle from your lock screen post this Feature update.

 

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