If you picked up a Google Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro at launch, or during the Black Friday sales, you’ll be happy to know that the phones just got a bunch of cool new features.
Among the features just released are complimentary access to the Google One VPN, more unified privacy and security settings, Clear Calling and updates to the auto-transcribing Pixel recorder.
The Google One VPN is one of the big extra perks Google announced during the Pixel 7 launch event, offering five years free access to the service. Without a Pixel 7 you’d have to subscribe to the $10 a month Google One plan, which includes 2TB of storage, 10% off purchases made through the Google Store and other perks.
Google One's VPN is designed to offer an extra layer of security to your browsing experience. Though our own testing found that the service didn’t let you choose a server yourself, or spoof your location to access foreign streaming catalogues. That makes it less appealing when you have to hand over money. But if it’s free you might as well take advantage of whatever is on offer — right?
With the new Clear Calling feature, your Pixel 7 can clean up the audio on phone calls, reducing background noise to make sure you can hear what’s going on. This feature is powered by the Tensor G2, so unfortunately it won’t be heading to older Pixel phones in the near future.
That isn’t the case with the Pixel Recorder, with the latest update also coming to the Pixel 6 series.
I speak from experience when I say the Pixel Recorder’s auto-transcription is a fantastic tool, but it doesn’t always produce the neatest results. The latest update should change that, with machine learning giving the app the ability to keep tabs on individual speakers and label speech accordingly.
If you’re regularly recording speech, be it for meetings, interviews, school, or something else, this is going to make your post-recording organization so much easier.
As for the unified security and privacy settings, you’ll now be able to find both menus in the same place. Not only will this make it easier to find the right settings in the Pixel 7's settings, new action cards will be able to notify you of any potential security risks and how you can fix them.
This update has already started rolling out, and should be arriving on your Pixel 7 anytime now — assuming it hasn’t already. To check on the availability of the update on your Pixel 7, head to the phone's system settings and check the software update option.
