Tag Archives: Pixel

Pixel 6: Setting a new standard for mobile security

Posted by Dave Kleidermacher, Jesse Seed, Brandon Barbello, and Stephan Somogyi, Android, Pixel & Tensor security teams

With Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, we’re launching our most secure Pixel phone yet, with 5 years of security updates and the most layers of hardware security. These new Pixel smartphones take a layered security approach, with innovations spanning across the Google Tensor system on a chip (SoC) hardware to new Pixel-first features in the Android operating system, making it the first Pixel phone with Google security from the silicon all the way to the data center. Multiple dedicated security teams have also worked to ensure that Pixel’s security is provable through transparency and external validation.

Secure to the Core

Google has put user data protection and transparency at the forefront of hardware security with Google Tensor. Google Tensor’s main processors are Arm-based and utilize TrustZone™ technology. TrustZone is a key part of our security architecture for general secure processing, but the security improvements included in Google Tensor go beyond TrustZone.

Figure 1. Pixel Secure Environments

The Google Tensor security core is a custom designed security subsystem dedicated to the preservation of user privacy. It's distinct from the application processor, not only logically, but physically, and consists of a dedicated CPU, ROM, one-time-programmable (OTP) memory, crypto engine, internal SRAM, and protected DRAM. For Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, the security core’s primary use cases include protecting user data keys at runtime, hardening secure boot, and interfacing with Titan M2TM.

Your secure hardware is only as good as your secure OS, and we are using Trusty, our open source trusted execution environment. Trusty OS is the secure OS used both in TrustZone and the Google Tensor security core.

With Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro your security is enhanced by the new Titan M2TM, our discrete security chip, fully designed and developed by Google. In this next generation chip, we moved to an in-house designed RISC-V processor, with extra speed and memory, and made it even more resilient to advanced attacks. Titan M2TM has been tested against the most rigorous standard for vulnerability assessment, AVA_VAN.5, by an independent, accredited evaluation lab. Titan M2™ supports Android Strongbox, which securely generates and stores keys used to protect your PINs and password, and works hand-in-hand with Google Tensor security core to protect user data keys while in use in the SoC.

Moving a step higher in the system, Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro ship with Android 12 and a slew of Pixel-first and Pixel-exclusive features.

Enhanced Controls

We aim to give users better ways to control their data and manage their devices with every release of Android. Starting with Android 12 on Pixel, you can use the new Security hub to manage all your security settings in one place. It helps protect your phone, apps, Google Account, and passwords by giving you a central view of your device’s current configuration. Security hub also provides recommendations to improve your security, helping you decide what settings best meet your needs.

For privacy, we are launching Privacy Dashboard, which will give you a simple and clear timeline view of the apps that have accessed your location, microphone and camera in the last 24 hours. If you notice apps that are accessing more data than you expected, the dashboard provides a path to controls to change those permissions on the fly.

To provide additional transparency, new indicators in Pixel’s status bar will show you when your camera and mic are being accessed by apps. If you want to disable that access, new privacy toggles give you the ability to turn off camera or microphone access across apps on your phone with a single tap, at any time.

The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro also include a toggle that lets you remove your device’s ability to connect to less-secure 2G networks. While necessary in certain situations, accessing 2G networks can open up additional attack vectors; this toggle helps users mitigate those risks when 2G connectivity isn’t needed.

Built-in security

By making all of our products secure by default, Google keeps more people safe online than anyone else in the world. With the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, we’re also ratcheting up the dial on default, built-in protections.

Our new optical under-display fingerprint sensor ensures that your biometric information is secure and never leaves your device. As part of our ongoing security development lifecycle, Pixel 6 and 6 Pro’s fingerprint unlock has been externally validated by security experts as a strong and secure biometric unlock mechanism meeting the Class 3 strength requirements defined in the Android 12 Compatibility Definition Document (CDD).

Phishing continues to be a huge attack vector, affecting everyone across different devices.

The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro introduce new anti-phishing protections. Built-in protections automatically scan for potential threats from phone calls, text messages, emails, and links sent through apps, notifying you if there’s a potential problem.

Users are also now better protected against bad apps by enhancements to our on-device detection capabilities within Google Play Protect. Since its launch in 2017, Google Play Protect has provided the ability to detect malicious applications even when the device is offline. The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro uses new machine learning models that improve the detection of malware in Google Play Protect. The detection runs on your Pixel, and uses a privacy preserving technology called federated analytics to discover commonly-run bad apps. This will help to further protect over 3 billion users by improving Google Play Protect, which already analyzes over 100 billion apps every day to detect threats.

Many of Pixel’s privacy-preserving features run inside Private Compute Core, an open source sandbox isolated from the rest of the operating system and apps. Our open source Private Compute Services manages network communication for these features, and uses federated learning, federated analytics, and private information retrieval to improve features while preserving privacy. Some features already running on Private Compute Core include Live Caption, Now Playing, and Smart Reply suggestions.

Google Binary Transparency (GBT) is the newest addition to our open and verifiable security infrastructure, providing a new layer of software integrity for your device. Building on the principles pioneered by Certificate Transparency, GBT helps ensure your Pixel is only running verified OS software. It works by using append-only logs to store signed hashes of the system images. The logs are public and can be used to verify that what’s published is the same as what’s on the device – giving users and researchers the ability to independently verify OS integrity for the first time.

Beyond the Phone

Defense-in-depth isn’t just a matter of hardware and software layers. Security is a rigorous process. Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro benefit from in-depth design and architecture reviews, memory-safe rewrites to security critical code, static analysis, formal verification of source code, fuzzing of critical components, and red-teaming, including with external security labs to pen-test our devices. Pixel is also part of the Android Vulnerability Rewards Program, which paid out $1.75 million last year, creating a valuable feedback loop between us and the security research community and, most importantly, helping us keep our users safe.

Capping off this combined hardware and software security system, is the Titan Backup Architecture, which gives your Pixel a secure foot in the cloud. Launched in 2018, the combination of Android’s Backup Service and Google Cloud’s Titan Technology means that backed-up application data can only be decrypted by a randomly generated key that isn't known to anyone besides the client, including Google. This end-to-end service was independently audited by a third party security lab to ensure no one can access a user's backed-up application data without specifically knowing their passcode.

To top it all off, this end-to-end security from the hardware across the software to the data center comes with no fewer than 5 years of guaranteed Android security updates on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro devices from the date they launch in the US. This is an important commitment for the industry, and we hope that other smartphone manufacturers broaden this trend.

Together, our secure chipset, software and processes make Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro the most secure Pixel phone yet.

Pixel 6’s camera combines hardware, software and ML

Last week, we announced Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, and we spent some time introducing the new Pixel Camera, which gets a big boost from Google Tensor, Google’s first System on a Chip (SoC) designed specifically for Pixel. But there’s so much more to talk about — so we wanted to take some time to show you how the new camera uses the latest technology from the Pixel hardware and research teams as well as our Pixel software team.

From HDR+ to Night Sight, Pixel has a history of building state-of-the-art cameras using computational photography, and Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are no exception. Google Tensor allows us to combine new camera hardware with thoughtful software, as well as advancements in machine learning (ML).

Photo of Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.

Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro camera bar.

Videos that look as good as photos

For the first time ever, Pixel Camera has Live HDR+ enabled in all video modes – even 4K60 – and in popular social and chat apps, too. With Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, we drastically accelerated Live HDR+ by designing it directly into Google Tensor’s Image Signal Processor (ISP). Google Tensor enabled many other improvements to video, too, including real-time tone mapping of people and upgrades to stabilization.

Alt text: Frames of 4K60 Live HDR+ video at a beach during sunset and a field in the afternoon.

Google Tensor enables Live HDR+ in video.

Night Sight is better than ever

Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have a larger main rear camera that can capture 2.5x as much light as Pixel 5, so your Night Sight photos will be sharper and more detailed than ever. The larger camera works with a new laser detect auto focus system and Google Tensor’s ISP, which use new motion detection algorithms to capture shorter exposures that aren’t as blurry.

hoto of a hiker sitting in a dark ice cave and photo of a woman leaning on a pink and white car at night.

The new main sensor captures 2.5x as much light as ever before.

A more equitable camera

With Real Tone, Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are designed for people of every skin tone, so that your portraits look authentic and true to life. Google Tensor enables an advanced ML-based face detection model that more accurately auto-exposes photos of people of color. We also updated our auto-white balance algorithm to detect and correct inaccurate skin tones, and, if you enable Frequent Faces, Pixel Camera will also learn how to better auto-white balance the people you photograph most-frequently.

Alt text: Photo of a person looking toward the camera in a green shirt. Photo of a person looking toward the camera against an orange background.

Real Tone helps everyone feel seen, no matter their skin tone.

Fewer blurry photos of people

With Face Unblur, more of your photos of people will come out crisp and sharp. If Google Tensor detects someone is moving quickly, Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro simultaneously take a darker but sharper photo on the Ultra Wide camera and a brighter but blurrier photo on the main camera. Google Tensor then uses machine learning to automatically combine the two photos, giving you a well-exposed photo with a sharp face.

Alt text: Photo of a young girl playing under a colorful awning.

The upgraded Ultra Wide camera is used to take sharp photos of moving people, even when you don’t zoom out.

Easy-to-use creative effects

Sometimes, you want a bit of blur – with Motion Mode (now in Beta on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro), you can easily capture high-quality Action Pans and Long Exposures. Instead of using a sleight of hand or tripod, you can just press the Pixel Camera shutter button and rely on Google Tensor to handle motion vector calculations, frame interpolation, subject segmentation, hand-shake rejection, and blur rendering.

Photo of a city street with streaks of light from taillights and a NYC cab zipping through Manhattan.

Action Pan and Long Exposure features in Motion Mode create artful blur of movement.

Zooming in…

Pixel 6 Pro’s new telephoto camera uses an updated version of Super Res Zoom with HDR+ Bracketing so zoomed photos look sharp, not grainy. The sensor used in the 4x optical camera is larger than Pixel 5’s main sensor and it gathers more light, so fitting it in Pixel 6 Pro is no easy feat. It’s hidden inside the camera bar and uses a prism that bends the light so the lens can be oriented sideways.

Schematic of Pixel 6 Pro telephoto camera.
Photo of person relaxing on a bench, taken from top of building.

Pixel 6 Pro has the best zoom we’ve ever put in a Pixel phone.

…and zooming out

Speaking of zoom, sometimes selfies feel too zoomed in, making it tricky to get a picture with all your friends or family. We built a new Ultra Wide selfie camera for Pixel 6 Pro that lets you ditch the selfie stick. When taking a selfie, you can zoom out by pressing the .7x button and capture photos of yourself or a group without extending your arm or fumbling around. And if you want to vlog on YouTube, Pixel 6 Pro’s selfie camera now supports 4K video recording and Speech enhancement mode, too! Pixel 6 uses Tensor’s TPU to simultaneously process audio and visual cues to isolate speech. It can reduce background noise up to 80% in noisy environments.

A group of friends posing for a selfie.

Pixel 6 Pro lets you zoom out to .7x on selfies so you can capture the entire crew.

Easier edits with Magic Eraser

Magic Eraser in Google Photos can help remove photobombers from your photos with the tap of a button. Using novel algorithms for confidence, segmentation, and inpainting, Magic Eraser can easily remove suggested distractions from your photos or let you select things you want to remove. Better yet, these machine learning models run on-device using Google Tensor, so you can even use Magic Eraser when you’re away from connectivity or when your photos haven’t backed up yet.

Photo of a person sitting in the grass with two photobombers in the background and the same photo with the photobombers removed using Magic Eraser.

Magic Eraser removes distracting people in the background.

This is Pixel Camera's biggest hardware update ever, from the new Google Tensor chip to the debut of the camera bar. It's the best Pixel Camera we've built, and we can't wait to see what you do with it. Share your photos and videos on #TeamPixel through Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter.

Get the new Pixel and more, with Pixel Pass

Today, we introduced the new Pixel 6 and Pixel Pro, and we’re also announcing a whole new way to get them. Pixel Pass brings together the latest Pixel phone with Google’s best mobile services, device protection and regular device upgrades — all in one easy subscription.

Pixel Pass is $45 per month for the Pixel 6 and $55 per month for the Pixel 6 Pro. With both Pixel Pass plans, you’ll get the most personal and helpful phone we’ve ever created, combined with the best of Google services to get the most out of your new device. That includes:

  • YouTube Premium for ad-free watching and background play while using other apps
  • YouTube Music Premium for ad-free, uninterrupted listening
  • Google One with 200 GB of safe, reliable cloud storage for full resolution photos and videos, Google Store discounts, automatic phone backup and more
  • Google Play Pass with access to hundreds of games and apps completely free of ads and in-app purchases
  • Preferred Care coverage to cover life’s little accidents with hassle-free device repairs

You can subscribe to Pixel Pass on the Google Store or with a phone plan on Google Fi. When you subscribe to Pixel Pass on the Google Store, you save up to $294 over two years. Plus, your Pixel phone is unlocked, so it works with all major carriers. And if you subscribe through Google Fi with a phone plan, you can save an additional $5 off your monthly Fi plan, totaling up to $414 in savings over two years.

Once you’re subscribed to Pixel Pass, you can manage everything in one place and pay with just one low monthly bill. And if you try it out and it’s just not right for you, you can cancel anytime — just pay off the remaining value of your Pixel phone at regular price.

Pixel Pass with Pixel 6 is available for pre-order today in the U.S. starting at $45 per month on Google Store or Google Fi.

Google Tensor is a milestone for machine learning

Every few years, machine learning (ML) completely changes the way we use tech. And we're proud to say that sometimes, Google products are part of that. We’ve seen Google Assistant make your devices more helpful and Google Translate break down language barriers, but we haven’t always been able to bring the best of ML to the smartphone.

That’s why we made Google Tensor. A chip that can deliver totally new capabilities for Pixel users by keeping pace with the latest advancements in ML.

Built with Google Research

A few years ago, Google’s team of researchers came together across hardware, software and ML to build the best mobile ML computer to finally realize our vision of what should be possible on our Pixel smartphones.

Co-designing Google Tensor with Google Research gave us insight into where ML models are heading, not where they are today. This allowed us to build an AI/ML platform that could keep up with our work at Google.

With Google Tensor, we’re unlocking amazing new experiences that require state of the art ML — including Motion Mode, Face Unblur, Speech enhancement mode for videos and applying HDRnet to videos (more on these later). Google Tensor allows us to push the limits of helpfulness in a smartphone, taking it from a one-size-fits-all piece of hardware into a device that’s intelligent enough to respect and accommodate the different ways we use our phones.

Designed differently

Image of a computer chip against a black background. The chip is divided into sections that read: TPU, ISP, Security, Content Hub, CPU, GPU, and System Cache.

We designed Google Tensor differently. Google Tensor was built to be a premium system on a chip (SoC) that has everything you would expect from a mobile SoC, and more.

So how did we do this? The core experience areas — speech, language, imaging and video — for our new phones are all heterogeneous by nature, meaning they require multiple resources across the entire chip. So we made sure that Google Tensor was carefully designed to deliver the right level of compute performance, efficiency and security. And with Android 12, we set out to build an OS that lays the foundation for the future of hardware and software working together. You can see this in real-world use cases, like taking amazing videos or understanding more foreign languages.

What Google Tensor can do

Collaboration across Google Research, hardware and software allowed us to bring new capabilities to Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. This is a result of Google Tensor running more advanced, state-of-the-art ML models but at lower power consumption compared to previous Pixel phones.

For example, Google Assistant on Google Tensor uses the most accurate Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) ever released by Google. And for the first time we can use a high quality ASR model even for long-running applications such as Recorder or tools such as Live Caption without quickly draining the battery.

Animated GIF showing translation running in messages on a Pixel phone.

You’ll also be able to better communicate with people in the language you are most comfortable with thanks to Google Tensor and the new Live Translate feature on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. More chat apps — like Messages and WhatsApp — will allow users to translate directly in the chat application, meaning no more cutting and pasting text into the Google Translate web service. Google Tensor also enables Live Translate to work on media like videos using on-device speech and translation models. Compared to previous models on Pixel 4 phones, the new on-device neural machine translation (NMT) model uses less than half the power when running on Google Tensor.

Google Tensor also powers computational photography and video features, which are part of what make Pixel such an impressive phone. Take one of our favorite new features as an example: Motion Mode.

Animated GIF of a waterfall, showing the image starting with the water smoothed out, showing it in motion, versus showing the individual waves falling over the cliff.

Tensor’s heterogeneous architecture uses the entire chip to enable this new feature at a quality not achievable until now. Because our chip’s subsystems work better together, Tensor can handle photography tasks more quickly.

There’s also video, which is always a tough use case to solve for. We’ve always dreamed of getting Pixel video to match the quality of Pixel photos — and Google Tensor has helped us deliver better experiences in each area.

By embedding parts of HDRNet, a feature that delivers the signature Pixel look more efficiently, directly onto the chip, it now works in all video modes for the first time — even at 4K and 60 frames per second — to deliver recordings with more accurate and vivid colors.

You can also expect more accurate face detection on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro compared to previous Pixel phones. Not only will your phone locate and focus on your subject more quickly, but it will consume about half the power when compared to Pixel 5.

More protection with Tensor security core and Titan M2

Together, Titan M2, Google Tensor security core, and TrustZone™ running Trusty OS give Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro the most layers of hardware security in any phone.

Our chip includes Tensor security core, a new CPU-based subsystem that works with the next generation of our dedicated security chip, Titan M2, to protect your sensitive user data. Independent security lab testing showed that Titan M2 can withstand attacks like electromagnetic analysis, voltage glitching and even laser fault injection. Yes, we literally shot lasers at our chip!

Google Tensor was built around the AI and ML work we’ve been doing in collaboration with Google Research, in order to deliver real-world user experiences. Tensor is unlocking experiences that weren’t possible until now. We love the idea that helpful technology is available whenever and wherever you need it, so whether Google Tensor is helping you use Motion Mode or bringing you higher quality translations, we can’t wait for you to try it out for yourself.

New cases and more for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

The latest generation of Pixel cases are here with a whole new look. They are built to protect your Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, and they’re designed to pair beautifully with it, too. These new cases aren’t just good looking: They are made with our dual-layered construction and raised edges to guard your Pixel when it matters most. Shock-absorbing materials wrap around each corner, helping protect your screen and camera visor from scratches and drops.

Translucent cases against a white background.

We developed translucent colors that are intentionally designed to let your Pixel shine through. This lets you combine colors to personalize your Pixel even further. You can enhance the colors of your device with a matching case shade or create an entirely new color shift if you choose a contrasting hue. Each colorful case is thoughtfully crafted with an inner layer of 75% recycled material, giving plastic a beautiful new lease on life.

The cases come in three colors for Pixel 6 and four colors for Pixel 6 Pro. Pre-order yours today for $29 on the Google Store.

18 translucent cases for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 pro against a white background.

Coming soon: Pixel Stand 2nd gen

An animation of a phone being placed on a Pixel Stand and charging.

Along with all the other fantastic hardware and software upgrades to Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, you will soon have access to even faster wireless charging. Pixel Stand (2nd gen) charges Pixel 6 at up to 21W and Pixel 6 Pro at up to 23W with the help of a nearly silent fan to keep things cool for hours of power in minutes of charge.

With the new Pixel Stand we’ve included an added level of customization to your Pixel phone charging experience. Max Charge will charge your Pixel as quickly as possible, while Quiet Charge mode is perfect to accommodate silent spaces. And if neither of those sound right, Auto/Optimized mode will let the Pixel Stand determine charging speed and style for your Pixel phone. We’ve even included a dedicated coil for easier charging of your wireless-charging-enabled earbuds.

All the existing fun features when charging on Pixel Stand, like Sunrise Alarm, Photo Frames the Pixel Stand Bedtime experience and more are all coming back to Pixel phones with Material You visual updates for an even more personalized experience.

A Pixel phone screen showing charging controls for Pixel Stand.

Every Pixel Stand comes with a USB-C charger and a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box. Pixel Stand 2nd gen will be coming soon to the Google Store and retail later this year.

A person pulling a tan leather case on a Pixel 6 out from the pocket of black pants

Enhance the feel and design of Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro with a beautifully constructed leather case by Made for Google partner Bellroy. The case smoothly integrates with the phone’s design, and the leather wraps from edge to edge, giving you a touchably soft, seamless feel while protecting your Pixel. The cases are made from premium leather,chosen for its ability to protect, and look good for a long time to come. Developed with precision fit to avoid bulkiness, and available in Google-exclusive colors, it's the perfect companion to your Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.

Be sure to visit the online Google Store today for a new case to go with your Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro - and stay tuned for more updates on Pixel Stand 2nd gen.

More personal, more powerful: Meet Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

The wait is over: Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, the completely redesigned Google phones, are here. Powered by Google Tensor, Google’s first-ever processor, and shipping with Android 12, both phones are fast, smart, secure and designed to adapt to you.

Pixel 6 is an outstanding all-around phone and it starts at only $599. If you want all the advanced capabilities and upgraded finishes, Pixel 6 Pro is the right phone for you, starting at $899.

Powering the new Pixel lineup is Google Tensor, a mobile system on a chip designed specifically around Google’s industry-leading AI. Google Tensor enables entirely new capabilities for your smartphone, and makes Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro more helpful and more personal.

Distinct design

Pixel has a bold new design this year with a cohesive look across the software on the inside and the hardware on the outside. The first thing you’ll notice is the Camera Bar, giving the phone a clean, symmetrical design that puts the camera front-and-center.

Image of Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones laying on a gray surface. The phones are different colors and showing the camera bar. They are all laying screen side down.

Pixel 6 has a distinctive graphic and vibrant look. The matte black metal band complements the expressive, versatile color options. Pixel 6 Pro was inspired by the finishes you see in luxury jewelry and watches. It’s made with a polished metal unibody and transitions into gorgeous curved glass in colors that complement the metallic frames.

Speaking of color, Android 12 brings a full redesign to the OS, with Material You.

Android 12 on Pixel 6

Android 12 builds on the best features of Android so your phone can really beyour phone: It can adapt to you, it’s secure by default and private by design. And Android 12 looks especially stunning on Pixel 6.

Animated GIF showing the At A Glance feature on a new Pixel 6 phone.

When you choose your wallpaper, your entire UI will update to reflect that choice. Everything will feel more responsive and smoother. At a Glance, which shows up on the home and lock screen, has a fresh new look and some new capabilities. Here, you’ll find what you need, right when you need it — like your boarding pass the day of your flight or stats from your current workout.

And Pixel 6 is again the highest rated phone for security. It includes the next generation Titan M2TM, which works with Tensor security core to protect your sensitive user data, PINs and passwords. We’ve also extended our support window to at least five years of security updates, so your phone has the most up-to-date protection.

New Pixel, new camera

Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have the most advanced cameras we’ve ever built. The entire camera experience is improved from the hardware to Pixel’s revolutionary computational photography.

Both Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have a new 1/1.3 inch sensor on the back. This primary sensor now captures up to 150% more light (compared to Pixel 5’s primary camera), meaning you’re going to get photos and videos with even greater detail and richer color. Both phones also have completely new ultrawide lenses with larger sensors, so photos look great when you want to fit more in your shot.

Pixel 6 Pro also has an amazing telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom and up to 20x zoom with an improved version of Pixel’s Super Res Zoom. There’s also an upgraded ultrawide front camera that records 4K video. You can make use of that wider front camera in Snapchat’s new ultrawide selfie feature. Plus, for instant Snapchat access, the new Quick Tap to Snap feature is coming exclusively to Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro later this year.

Magic Eraser makes distractions in your photos disappear, just like that. With a few taps in Google Photos, remove strangers and unwanted objects.

Animated GIF of a photo of a couple talking. The Magic Eraser feature takes out various people in the background.

Motion Mode features options like Action Pan and Long Exposure, which bring movement to your shots. You can use Action Pan to take photos of your kids riding their scooter or landing crazy skateboarding tricks against a stylish blurred background. Or create beautiful long exposure shots where your subject is moving, like waterfalls or vibrant city scenes.

  • Animated GIF showing how Long Exposure works in Google Photos.

    Long Exposure

  • Animated GIF of an Action Pan photo of a cyclist.

    Action Pan

  • Long exposure shot of a couple standing in front of a ferris wheel.

    Long Exposure

Another significant advancement in photography across Pixel and Google Photos is Real Tone. Going back decades, cameras have been designed to photograph light skin — a bias that’s crept into many of our modern digital imaging products and algorithms. Our teams have been working directly with photographers, cinematographers and colorists who are celebrated for their beautiful and accurate imagery of communities of color. We asked them to test our cameras and editing tools and provide honest feedback, which helped make our camera and auto enhancement features more equitable.

Related Article

Image equity: Making image tools more fair for everyone

As part of Google’s Product Inclusion efforts, our teams are building more equitable camera and imaging products for people of color.

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Smarts and speech

Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro also have improved speech recognition and language understanding models, so it can make everyday tasks easier. For instance, you can now use your voice to quickly type, edit, and send messages with Assistant voice typing in Messages, Gmail and more. Let Google Assistant help with adding punctuation, making corrections, inserting emojis and sending your messages.

You might find yourself occasionally trying to decide if you have time to call a business now, or if you should call later to avoid waiting on hold. Now, Wait Times and Direct My Call, available in the U.S. and in English, make that decision easier: Before you even place your call to a toll-free business number, you’ll see the current and expected hour-by-hour Wait Times for the rest of the week.

And when you call the business, Direct My Call helps you get to the right place. Powered by Duplex technology, Google Assistant transcribes the automated message and menu options for you in real-time and displays them on your screen for you to see and tap. For more information about these advancements in calling assistance, please see our blog post.

Animated GIF showing how Call Waiting and Direct my Call work.

Finally, Live Translate enables you to message with people in different languages, including English, French, German, Italian and Japanese. It works by detecting whether a message in your chat apps, like WhatsApp or Snapchat, is different from your language, and if so, automatically offers you a translation. All of this detection and processing happens entirely on-device within Private Compute Core, so no data ever leaves the device, and it works even without network connectivity. With support for Interpreter mode, you’ll also be able to take turns translating what is said in up to 48 languages. Activate Assistant and say “Be my interpreter.”

Animated GIF showing a Pixel 6 phone using interpreter mode.

One more thing: When you get an incoming call, just say “accept” or “decline” without having to use “Hey Google” every time by enabling Quick phrases. You can also “stop” and “snooze” alarms and timers.

Get your hands on the new Pixel

Pre-order Pixel 6 today, which starts at $599 and $899 for the Pixel 6 Pro. The phones will be available on store shelves with all major U.S. carriers starting on October 28. We’re also launching a new collection of specially designed cases for Pixel 6, so you can protect your phone in style.

We’re also introducing Pixel Pass, an easy subscription that delivers the best of Google. Starting at $45 per month for U.S. customers, Pixel Pass gives you a brand new Pixel 6 along with Google One, YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium, Google Play Pass and Preferred Care. Pixel Pass with Pixel 6 Pro starts at only $55 per month. After two years, you’ll have the option to upgrade to a new Pixel.

However you buy it, and whichever Pixel 6 you pick, we know you are going to love your new phone.

Say hello to better phone calls

Our smartphones can do amazing things: They can capture great photos, and they act as our alarm clock, our camera, our stereo, our library, our game console and more, all in one. But making phone calls, the original “feature” of our devices, has mostly remained the same for decades. When we call businesses to get something done, we’re often met with long, automated systems and endless elevator music. And as we go about our days, we’re often distracted by calls from unknown numbers, spammers and scammers. That’s why we are always seeking improvements with phone calls, and so today we’re excited to announce our latest advancements in calling assistance to make them better.

A better way to call businesses

Starting today on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro devices in the U.S. our latest Phone app features, Wait Times and Direct My Call, make calling businesses easier. Before you even place your call to a toll-free business number, you’ll see the current and projected Wait Times for the rest of the week. That can help you decide whether you have time to call now, or plan when to call later to avoid long waits. Wait Times are inferred from call length data that is not linked to user identifiers.

When calling a business, see menu options on the screen for you to tap.

Once you ring the business, Direct My Call helps you get to the right place with less hassle. Google Assistant transcribes the automated message and menu options for you in real time and displays them on your screen for you to see and tap, so you don’t need to remember all the options. Direct My Call is powered by Google’s Duplex technology, which uses advanced speech recognition and language understanding models to determine when the business wants you to do something ​​– like select a number (“Press 1 for hours and locations”), say a word (“Say ‘representative’ to speak with one of our agents”) or input your account number.

When calling a business, see menu options on the screen for you to tap.

Direct My Call builds on previous features we've released that make calling businesses easier. Last year, we launched Hold For Me to help reduce the number of minutes you spend on hold. It already saves Pixel users in the United States over 1.5 million minutes each month, and it’s expanding to Pixel users in Australia, Canada and Japan in the coming months. Assistant is able to recognize when hold music is being played and understands the difference between a recorded message (like “Hello, thank you for waiting”) and a representative on the line thanks to Duplex technology, so that you can go back to your day and get notified when someone is ready to talk.

Press “Hold for me” and let Google Assistant wait on hold, then notify you when someone is ready to talk.

Know who’s calling you

Receiving calls from unknown numbers is a drag, and a majority of Americans choose not to answer them. They also report missing important calls they assume are spam. That’s why starting today, we’re improving Google’s extensive caller ID coverage of businesses with help from our users. You can now share information about unknown businesses that you call or answer (such as the type of business) and over time that information will be displayed on incoming calls to help others know more about who’s calling them. This information is not joined with any user identifiers. We expect this to double the number of businesses that have caller ID information – so you can answer more calls with confidence.

Caller ID identifies a type of business, in addition to the phone number.

If you do get a call from an unknown number, not to worry – Call Screen helps you find out who they are and why they’re calling before you pick up. Call Screen helps users in the U.S., Canada and Japan screen 37 million calls each month, and today we’re expanding manual Call Screen to Pixel users in the U.K., France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Our latest on-device speech models make the transcriptions more accurate than ever on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro thanks to Pixel’s new Google Tensor.

Google Assistant answers calls and transcribes the conversation.

Keeping your data safe

All audio transcriptions are processed on your device, which makes the experiences fast and also protects your privacy. No audio from the call will be shared with Google unless you explicitly decide to share it to help improve features. After the experience is over, like when you return to a call after Google Assistant was on hold for you or after Google Assistant screened a call, audio stops being processed altogether.

It’s time to rethink phone calls, and our latest calling assistance features are designed to save you time and make it easier than ever to connect with the right contact at the right time.

Image equity: Making image tools more fair for everyone

Pictures are a big part of how we see each other and the world around us, and historically racial bias in camera technology has overlooked and excluded people of color. That same bias can carry through in our modern imaging tools if they aren’t tested with a diverse group of people and inputs, delivering unfair experiences for people of color, like over-brightening or unnaturally desaturating skin. We acknowledge that Google has struggled in this area in the past, and are committed to continuing to improve our products accordingly. As part of Google’s Product Inclusion and Equity efforts, our teams are on a mission to build camera and imaging products that work equitably for all people, so that everyone feels seen, no matter their skin tone.

Pixel 6: A more equitable camera

  • A person photographs a group of six people sitting on and around a park bench.
  • A photographer takes a picture of a Black woman looking out a window.
  • A photographer lays on the ground to take a portrait of a family of four from below.

Building better tools for a community works best when they’re built with the community. For the new Pixel 6 Camera, we partnered with a diverse range of renowned image makers who are celebrated for their beautiful and accurate depictions of communities of color—including Kira Kelly, Deun Ivory, Adrienne Raquel, Kristian Mercado, Zuly Garcia, Shayan Asgharnia, Natacha Ikoli and more—to help our teams understand where we needed to do better. With their help, we've significantly increased the number of portraits of people of color in the image datasets that train our camera models. Their feedback helped us make the key improvements across our face detection, camera and editing products that we call Real Tone.

Let’s take a deeper look at how we approached these improvements:

  • In computational photography, making a great portrait depends on the camera’s ability to detect a face. We radically diversified the images that train our face detector to “see” more diverse faces in a wider array of lighting conditions.
  • Auto-white balance models help determine color in a picture. Our partners helped us make better decisions about how to render the nuances of skin for people of color.
  • Auto-exposure models help determine the brightness of an image. Feedback from our experts helped us ensure that our camera shows you as you are — not unnaturally darker or brighter.
  • Our teams noticed that stray light had a tendency to disproportionately wash out darker skin tones, so we developed and implemented an algorithm to reduce its effect in our images.
  • Blurriness in portraits is a consistent concern for people with darker skin tones, so our teams used the Tensor chip’s processing power to make our portraits sharper through motion metering, even in low light conditions.

It was important for us to be sure that our adjustments were resonant with our collaborators as well, and we’re proud that they rated Pixel 6’s rendering of skin tone, brightness, depth and detail as best for people of color in a device-agnostic survey comparing top smartphone cameras.

Google Photos: More nuanced auto enhancements

Our partners’ expertise also helped our teams improve Google Photos’ popular auto enhance feature, so you can achieve a beautiful, representative photo regardless of when you took the photo, or which device you used. The updated auto enhance is designed to improve your picture’s color and lighting with just a tap, and works well across skin tones. It will roll out in Google Photos across Android and iOS devices in the coming weeks.

A mission, not a moment

We’re committed to building a more equitable experience across all of our camera and image products. To improve the visibility of meeting participants, we recently launched automaticlighting adjustments in Google Meet, and tested it across a range of skin tones to ensure it works well for everyone. And our Research teams are identifying more inclusive ways to handle skin tone in AI systems, both in Google products and across the industry. We’ll continue to partner with experts, listen to feedback and invest in tools and experiences that work for everyone. Because everyone deserves to be seen as they are.

Learn more about our efforts on Real Tone at http://g.co/pixel/realtone.

Photobombs begone with Magic Eraser in Google Photos

Sometimes things get in the way of the perfect photo — like an accidental photobomb or power lines you didn’t notice. They can distract from the photo, pulling attention from what you were really trying to capture. Removing distractions from photos isn’t an impossible task, but it typically requires sophisticated editing tools, know-how and time.

That’s why we’re launching Magic Eraser on Pixel 6 to help you remove those distractions in just a few taps right in Google Photos. And you’re not limited to newly captured photos — you can clean up all your photos, even those taken years ago or on non-Pixel phones.

Magic Eraser can detect distractions in your photos, like people in the background, power lines and power poles, and suggest what you might want to remove. Then, you can choose whether to erase them all at once or tap to remove them one by one.

Gif showing Magic Eraser being used in Google Photos on Pixel 6 on a photo of a child on the beach with people in the background. Magic Eraser suggests to "remove people in the background," then removes them, resulting in an image with just the child on the beach.

You can also circle or brush over what you want to remove. Using machine learning, Magic Eraser can figure out what you’re trying to remove based on what you circle, so you don’t have to spend time worrying about precise brushing. Then, once you decide what you want to erase, Magic Eraser uses machine learning again to predict what the pixels would look like if the distraction weren't there.

Gif showing Magic Eraser being used in Google Photos on Pixel 6 to manually remove distractions from the background of a photo of a child at a pumpkin patch. A person and various items are circled and then removed, resulting in an image with just the child.

Remove distractions from new photos taken on Pixel 6 or older photos taken on any camera, like this one from 20 years ago.

Magic Eraser builds on our suite of helpful editing features — including smart suggestions for portraits, photos of the sky and more — so you can get stunning photos easily and quickly. Developed through a close collaboration between the Google Photos and Google Research teams, these features are powered by machine learning and advances in computational photography.

Magic Eraser will be available in Google Photos on the Pixel 6 when it launches on October 28. So focus on capturing what matters — and if you find a distraction after the fact, Magic Eraser is there to help.

NBA fans can get closer to the game with Google and Pixel

At Google, we are passionate about helping people get access to information. And as a lifelong basketball fan, I know this is especially important in sports fandom. That’s why I’m personally excited to share that the Google Pixel is the Official Fan Phone of the NBA, NBA G League and NBA 2K League. And Google is each league’s Official Search Engine and Search Trends and Fan Insights Partner. Additionally, Pixel will be the first-ever presenting partner of the NBA Playoffs, joining YouTube TV, NBA Finals presenting sponsor, in the postseason. We'll combine the best of Google’s Search trends, information, technology, devices and services to help fans go deeper and get closer to the culture, teams and players they love.

Through this multi-year partnership, we’ll work with the NBA to create exciting immersive experiences for fans using our 3D and AR technology, as well as leverage new features that will be announced at our Pixel Fall Launch event. And we’ll continue to provide experiences and information in all the places fans turn to every day, whether that’s Pixel to take pictures of your favorite team in action, Search to check scores and schedules, Google Shopping to find your favorite player’s jersey, or Maps to get to the arena using the most sustainable route.

And for the basketball superfans like me, we’ll also integrate Google’s Search trends throughout the season, showing how fans are searching before, during and after games with real-time data. For instance, did you know that the NBA has been the top-searched sports league in the world since 2004? Or that people who search for the NBA are more likely to search for social justice compared to any other professional sports league?

Animated chart showing growth of search interest in the NBA from 2004 to-date for The Bahamas, Philippines, Puerto Rico and Australia.
Animated chart showing growth of search interest in the NBA from 2004 to-date worldwide and for the U.S.

As the Official Trends and Fan Insights Partner of the WNBA, we showcased these types of Search trends and insights throughout the season and during the WNBA Playoffs and WNBA Finals, including in live broadcasts of games, within arenas, and across Google and WNBA digital and social channels.

I’m proud that our work with the WNBA doesn’t end there. When Google became a WNBA Changemaker earlier this year, we worked with the WNBA and ESPN to increase visibility of women’s sports. We helped deliver 25 games on ABC and ESPN for the league’s 25th season and added a dedicated segment for women’s sports on ESPN’s SportsCenter. We’re equally proud to partner with the NBA, as its commitment to its fans and dedication to social responsibility are values that we share and deeply believe in.

Join us to hear more about the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro at the Pixel Fall Launch event Tuesday, October 19 at 10 am Pacific. You can also check out some exciting new Pixel camera features in action later that evening during a special Opening Night NBA on TNT Tip-Off pregame show. The NBA’s 75th anniversary season will then tip off with a doubleheader on TNT as defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks host the Brooklyn Nets at 4:30 pm Pacific and the Golden State Warriors visit the Los Angeles Lakers at 7 pm Pacific.