If you have a Google Pixel phone in your pocket, you might want to head to the settings app and see if you have a software update waiting to download, as Google has just announced its first big free upgrade of the year. Some of the new tools include updates to the Gemini Live AI software, new scam detection perks, and the Find My Device app to make it easier to track the location of your loved ones.
That last update is big news, as it means the Pixel can now be used like iPhones on Apple’s equivalent network of devices to let you keep an eye on where your partner, friends and kids are. It’s a handy safety feature.
Google regularly releases these so-called ‘Pixel Drop’ software updates, and the tech giant has just announced that the March 2025 release is rolling out, with many new features for the Pixel 9 series, but some of the new tools will also come to owners of the Pixel 6 and later, as well as Google’s Pixel Fold and Pixel 9 Pro Fold devices.
“Our first Pixel Drop of the year is here, bringing more helpful features and updates to your devices,” Google said. “These features start rolling out today and will continue over the next few weeks.”
One of the main advantages to owning a Google Pixel phone compared to other Android brands such as Samsung is that, as the maker of Android, Google often brings cutting edge new features to its own phones first, even if they eventually roll out to other brands’ phones.
If you use Gemini Live, Google’s newest AI assistant, you’ll be pleased to know it can now automatically detect your chatter in more than 45 languages, and you don’t need to manually select which you’re speaking, the tech is clever enough to detect itself and switch between dialects.
Google says this Pixel Drop also improves scam detection on Pixel phones, both for phone calls and in the Messages app. This uses on-device AI to detect dodgy callers or messages and alerts you when appropriate.
The clever Pixel Screenshots app on the Pixel 9 phones has been updated with a suggestion feature to better categorise your screenshots, plus it now works with your work profile so you can keep personal and professional snaps separate.
Also, for Pixel 9, the Pixel Studio app now lets you create the likeness of people using AI, which wasn’t possible before. It’s still a little odd in our book, but if you want to try and make some scenes from prompts, it will help the tech can now make them with people in.
Elsewhere, Google says it has made step counting on the Pixel Watch series more accurate, added auto bedtime mode to the Watch 2, added some new camera features to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and made it easier on Pixel phones to change and customise different phone modes such as Do Not Disturb.
