Google Pixel owners are getting new tricks with the March Feature Drop – here’s what’s coming

Google Pixel owners are getting some new tricks this week, with March’s Pixel Feature Drop. The biggest new feature is Snapchat gaining the ability to use Night Sight; along with a new cool accessibility feature.

The first thing you need to know is that Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro owners won’t get the Feature Drop until later this month. Owners of the Pixel 3a, 3a XL, 4, 4 XL, 4a, 4a 5G, or 5 started getting the update yesterday.

Pixel devices are bought for two things – a stock Android experience, and the quality of their camera. Now their camera is getting better for third-party apps, with the appearance of Night Sight inside Snapchat.

Yes, that means low-light is no barrier to sharing all those disappearing messages that you love to send. It’s limited to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro at this time, and they’ll get the feature in the coming weeks.

Another Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro-only feature in this drop is Live Caption expanding to voice calls. You’ll be able to get captions of the call, and you will also be able to use text-to-speech to reply. That’s awesome for accessibility.

Google Duo is gaining the ability to host watch parties of YouTube content. The interesting thing here is that Samsung’s Galaxy S22 had the feature first. Usually, Pixel owners get all the features first.

Google’s Gboard keyboard is getting custom sticker options, which you can “create” from available parts when you want to send one. It’s kinda neat and means you can personalize things to a degree.

Widgets

There’s a new Bluetooth battery tracking widget to keep track of your earbuds, or anything else with a battery that’s in the supported list. That also means your Pixel device, along with controllers or almost anything with Bluetooth.

The At a Glance widget now has more information on it, including battery levels, earthquake alerts, and information from the Personal Safety app. Oh, and you can silence notifications if your calendar says you’re on holiday.

Other feature improvements include some new wallpapers for International Women’s Day, some new language support for Assistant Quick Phrases on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, and the Direct My Call and Wait Times feature for calls.

Those help you navigate business automated prompts and handle queues via Google’s Duplex technology.

So, there you have it. Tons of new Google Pixel features coming this month. It’s a shame that the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro update is delayed, yet again.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.