The Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL is set to be announced on October 4th with multiple color options and a hefty price tag. While these two smartphones have had a lot of information leaked so far, one of the most controversial changes is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack. This has been corroborated by 9to5Google, @evleaks, and others, so it’s safe to say that the next generation Pixel 2/2 XL smartphones will not feature a headphone jack.
On Friday evening, Android Police’s Artem Russakovskii tweeted “unverified Pixel 2 rumors” detailing a mix of new and previously heard details about Google’s upcoming phones. Today, XDA- Developers, corroborated some of the newer claimed features.
At an I/O 2017 developer sandbox we spotted a Pixel Launcher running on a Pixel that placed the Search bar below the dock, just above the navigation buttons. This redesign has now been confirmed by the two sources, with Artem also noting that the “Google home page has whole new design.”
Having seen the rears of both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, we know that Google is sticking to a single camera setup. One of the new features this year is possibly a software portrait mode that “focuses on the main person in frame and blurs out the background.” Available through the Google Camera, it relies on software in an approach that would be in-line with Google’s reliance on algorithms rather than physical hardware.
- New “Portrait Mode” feature in the Google Camera app. This feature focuses on the main person in frame and blurs out the background to produce an image in vein of a live portrait. This feature is said to be similar to the Portrait Mode found on the iPhone 7 Plus.
- Revamped Pixel Launcher with the search bar at the bottom. This was accidentally shown off at this year’s Google I/O, and 9to5Google was able to capture a video of it in action. Some of you may not like how it looks, but the beauty of Android is that you can always install another launcher.
- New “Music Recognition” feature. According to the settings page for this feature, “when music is playing nearby, it will automatically show up on your lock screen.” Even though Google Assistant itself doesn’t yet have song recognition (though there’s a workaround for that), it seems that Google will somehow be able to listen for songs in the background and recommend them to you on the lock screen. Those of you worried about privacy will probably want to keep this feature disabled.
- Squeeze to launch Google Assistant. We already leaked the existence of this feature back in July, but Artem’s tweets now corroborate this further.
- Always on Ambient Display mode. We’ve covered this feature on multiple occasions, and given that it’s actually live in AOSP and can even be enabled on existing Android Oreo devices, this is probably Google’s worst-kept secret feature for the Pixel 2 series.
Newly teased is also a music recognition feature that’s always listening for tunes so that it can display the artist and title on your lockscreen. This feature can be disabled settings. As XDA points out, Google Assistant still lacks song recognition from the Google Now days so it’s likely that this feature works independently or is an upcoming one.
Meanwhile, reconfirmed tidbits include how the Active Edge featured revealed by the FCC filing for the HTC-made Pixel 2 will work even when the device is asleep and then it “immediately listens” when activated.
On that hardware front, XDA suggests that Pixel 2 XL will have dual stereo speakers on the face as rumored for the smaller device.
There are bound to be other leaks of features and hardware of the Google Pixel 2 and Google Pixel 2 XL in the coming days. We’re only a few days away from the official announcement, so there’s a lot to look forward to in the next week.
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