I was struck by how much of the presentation focused on the phone call, when I watched the announcement of the two new phones. The phone part of the phone may be small, but it's still capable of doing a lot of things. It's refreshing.
Brian Rakowski from the stage said that thePixel 7 is designed to be the best phone for phone calls. Direct My Call has been upgraded to make it easier to navigate and improve the audio quality of voice calls. Hold for Me and Call Screen are some of the features coming back from previous devices.
Clear calling is one of the most important features to help with phone calls. It uses machine learning to cut down on background noise from people on the other end of a phone call, even if they are in a noisy place.
There are many companies that have implemented noise suppression technology like this. Unlike Apple, which hides its Voice Isolation feature in an obscure sub-menu, Google presented Clear calling as one of the main features of thePixel 7.
Direct My Call, which was launched last year, is being upgraded. Direct My Call helps you navigate the menus used by call centers to prioritize your calls. It shows the options as text on the screen so you can get an idea of what you want. The feature has been used 50 million times.
The focus is on the basics.
An upgrade to Direct My Call will show you the menu options before the recording of the message starts. Minni Shahi explained that this is possible because of the Duplex technology that has already called the business and learned the menu options before the user places the call. It will be available for many of the most popular toll-free numbers in the US, but it is not clear how widespread it will be.
The focus on phone call features for thePixel devices is not new. During the launch of the Pixel 7 they were given their own section, which shows how important they are to the marketing of the company.
As far back as the year of the Pixel 3, the company was advertising its Call Screen feature, which allowed its phones to screen calls and give you a transcript of their conversations. Last year, the screening feature handled 600 million calls.
In 2020, the same year it launched the Pixel 5, it released Hold for Me, a feature that will alert you when it is time for you to speak with a real person. The feature was released for the devices after they were released for the other devices.
Wait Times, a feature that was launched with last year's Pixel 6 and is now available on the Pixel 3A and up, is finally here. Wait Times is a way to cut down on the frustration of being placed on hold. The feature estimates the amount of time you might be placed on hold based on the lengths of other people's calls.
It was limited to the United States.
Many of the technologies that have remained exclusive to the US are great to see, but it is a shame that they are not more widely available. It's an unfortunate limitation considering that Rakowski emphasized the global availability of thePixel 7 andPixel 7 Pro, which he says will be available to "even more users, in more places."
Direct My Call and Wait Times are only available in the United States. Users in the US are the only ones who can have Call Screen work automatically. Hold for Me is only available in two countries. There are no geographical limitations for the ClearCalling feature.
There are a lot of features in modern phones, but they don't forget about the basics. If a phone can't get basic phone calls, who cares about it?
All Rights Reserved © 2024
