Google on Monday announced a slew of new features coming to the Pixel lineup. The company's latest feature drop encourages Android users to get better sleep and also focuses on safety.
Feature drops were launched in December, rolling out once in every three months. Monday's announcement was Google's third feature drop, which brings a set of tools to inform users how much they're spending on specific apps, especially if the phone detects it's after the user's bedtime.
There's also a feature to allow users to fall asleep to calming sounds and an option to set an alarm so users can wake up to music. Google's bedtime feature in Clock helps users limit screen time and create a consistent sleep schedule.
According to Google, there's been a spike in search queries related to sleep in April and May, such as "can't sleep" and "insomnia," mostly due to the increased anxiety and stress brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Android's "Bedtime" mode, previously known as "Wind Down," uses Do Not Disturb to silence calls, texts, and notifications, while grayscale fades the colors on your phone to black and white, to reduce the draw to your screen. With the updates to this feature, Google is making it easier to customize when and how Bedtime mode is enabled.
All Pixel phones will now have the Personal Safety app, which used to be available on the Pixel 4 alone. Pixel 3, meanwhile, will be updated with car crash detection, and in the future, new safety features like a way to schedule a check-in from the app.
"If you don't respond to the scheduled check-in, the app will alert your emergency contacts," Tok Tokuda, technical program manager for Pixel, wrote in a blog post. "In the event that you need immediate help or are in a dangerous situation, emergency sharing notifies all of your emergency contacts and shares your real-time location through Google Maps so they can send help or find you."
Google has also made its Recorder app better than ever, now allowing users to start, stop, and search voice recording using Google Assistant. Additionally, you can save transcripts of your recordings to Google Docs.
The Pixel phones now come with an adaptive battery as well, which makes it easier to recognize if the battery will run out soon, as well as help users lessen background activity.
Google says all of these new features will be rolled out to owners of Pixel phones over the course of two weeks.
