If you’re looking for a stellar camera phone, you can’t go wrong with a Google Pixel smartphone. But Pixels are much more than just their camera. The software of Pixel smartphones is what makes them unique, as these phones tend to get better over time. Google does push the hardware to its limit in all the right ways, and the software magic on Pixels, as experienced through Pixel Feature Drops, is proof of it. But what are Pixel Feature Drops, and what do they bring to the table for your Google smartphone and other Pixel devices? We explore this in this article!
When people refer to Android as a platform, they are referring to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). AOSP is the barebones but open version of Android that Google develops. Anyone can take AOSP, make modifications on top of it, and release this modified version of Android. This is what manufacturers like Samsung and OnePlus do for their own phones by releasing heavily modified Android skins.
In fact, Google also does the same thing. It takes AOSP (the open platform that it develops) and makes modifications on top of it. These select modifications are exclusively released to Pixel smartphones in the form of Pixel UI. Pixel Feature Drops add and update Pixel-exclusive features. Thus, a Pixel smartphone can get three types of updates. The first is monthly security patches, which fix critical security issues. The second is Android platform updates, which upgrades the base Android version on the device. These happen annually for the major Android versions and periodically in between for minor releases. The third is Pixel Feature Drops, which adds exclusive features to Google Pixel smartphones.
Google sometimes opens up some select Pixel-exclusive features to the broader Android community. So, while Pixel Feature Drops are Pixel-exclusive initially, they may not forever remain so.
On the opposite end of the above statement, some features from Pixel Feature Drops also do not make it to older Pixel smartphones. This is mainly because these old smartphones either do not have the requisite hardware for a good experience or the phones are no longer supported.
Pixel Feature Drops include features for all devices in the Pixel ecosystem, including the Pixel Fold foldable, the Pixel Tablet, the Pixel Watch, and even the Pixel Buds.
When is the next Pixel Feature Drop?
Google has not committed to a specific release schedule for Pixel Feature Drops. Instead, the company says that Feature Drops arrive “every few months.” Based on historical trends, Pixel Feature Drops arrive once in three months. The last one was released on December 6, 2023, so we expect the next Pixel Feature Drop to be released in March or April 2024. Google likes to release updates on the first Mondays of the month, but it has begun deviating from this practice, so the update can arrive anytime in the month.
Rumored features for future Pixel Feature Drops
Feature Drops hold a lot of surprises for Pixel users, but we have a few leaks that shed light on what could come in the future. The taskbar on tablets and foldables could get a search bar (h/t Mishaal Rahman). We’ll update the article when we hear about more of these upcoming features.
Google Pixel Feature Drop: December 2023
Released on December 6, 2023. Here are the features announced by Google as part of the December 2023 feature drop. Video Boost with Night Sight Available on Pixel 8 Pro. Video Boost is the highlight feature of the December 2023 Pixel Feature Drop and also one of the primary Pixel 8 Pro camera features. Video Boost extends the power of computational photography to videography, but it needs to rely on Google’s cloud infrastructure for processing help. On the Pixel 8 Pro, you can shoot a video and upload it or back it up to Google Photos. Google will then process the video online to improve the color, lighting, stabilization, and graininess of the video. For low-light and night videos, it will also bring over Night Sight Video, which will use AI to apply noise reduction for richer details and color. Once the processing is complete, you can view and download the boosted video.