It’s available for preorder now and costs $1,799 with a $300 store credit, with official sales starting on September 4. Anyone who purchases it will get one year free of the Google One AI Premium Plan.
New Apps, Services, and AI Features
Pixel phones are known for their bevy of smart features, and several new additions are arriving with the latest handsets, plus some new apps. There’s now a dedicated Pixel Weather app, and it employs the on-device Gemini Nano large language model to summarize the weather. Another new app is Pixel Screenshots, a dedicated place that stores your screenshots, and since Gemini Nano can understand the content of your images, you can ask for information without having to hunt for the right screen capture. There’s also Pixel Studio, which lets you use generative AI to create new images, and you can even create stickers from your photos to insert.
On the calling front, there’s “Call Notes.” This gives you a sticky note’s worth of details from your call. These details can be things like phone numbers mentioned during the call, repair quotes, or reminders to call someone back—it’ll log anything noteworthy and put it in a note so you don’t need to hunt for pen and paper. Google says the person on the other end is notified when this feature is active due to call recording laws.
Pixel phones are finally debuting Satellite SOS, a feature that emerged on the iPhone 14 in 2022, making them some of the first Android phones with the ability. If you’re out of range of Wi-Fi or a cell tower, Pixel 9 devices will share your location and find your emergency contacts via satellite. However, this isn’t a guaranteed get-out-of-jail-free card—it requires setup, an additional charge, and will only work in the US for now. (As with Apple, it will be free for the first two years after activation.)
Google also has several new AI camera features like Add Me, Autoframe, Reimagine, and Zoom Enhance—I’ve rounded them up in this story if you want to learn more. (This one’s already long enough!)
The Pixel Watch 3
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This year’s Pixel Watch 3 is the first time you have size options—it comes in a 41- and 45-mm case size, with the latter offering a 40 percent larger screen. Google says these are packed with the same “Actua” OLED display technology as its Pixel phones and are twice as bright, making them easier to read on sunny days. You can also crank the brightness down as low as 1 nit, so you don’t blind your eyes right before bed.