More features are coming to Android and Pixel phones starting today. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
New features are on the way for Android phones and Pixel devices thanks to Android 15’s first quarterly platform update. New features for all eligible Android phones include more descriptive video captions, a Gemini-powered update to the Lookout app, and a Spotify extension for Gemini. Pixel owners are getting a few additional updates, including deeper integration of the Pixel Screenshots app for Pixel 9 phones.
The enhanced captions — or Expressive Captions as Google calls them — add descriptive phrases to try and capture non-spoken moments in dialogue; think [gasp] or [applause]. They’ll appear throughout the system wherever you can access video captions, including social media apps and video messages.
Image: Google
Descriptive Captions will capture more of what’s going on in the audio track.
Another accessibility-minded update targets Lookout, an app that provides audio descriptions of photos and objects for people with low vision or blindness. Google is bringing its Gemini 1.5 model to the Image Q&A portion of the app to offer better descriptions of photos taken or opened with the app. It’s a continuation of an effort Google highlighted at I/O to bring more AI features to Lookout.
On the AI front, Google is adding more extensions to Gemini Assistant. The Spotify extension allows you to play music from Spotify through Gemini. When Gemini Assistant debuted, it was missing basic features like this one — capabilities that the non-AI Assistant has been offering for the better part of a decade. This is one more step toward feature parity between Gemini and the standard Google Assistant. Gemini will also get access to the Utilities extension that’s been rolling out, allowing it to take more actions on your behalf, like making phone calls, sending emails, and changing phone settings.
Other highlights of this update include the ability to create stickers with Emoji Kitchen inside Gboard, share photos with a QR code in Quick Share, and an improved scanning mode for receipts and the like in Google Drive.
Pixel phones get a little more with the December feature drop, with several new features specifically for the Pixel 9 series. The call screening feature gets a potentially useful update with contextual reply suggestions. As the caller speaks to the assistant, you can tap on a response to answer questions without picking up the call.
Image: Google
Gboard will offer some suggested phrases based on things you add to Screenshots.
The Pixel 9’s Screenshots app also gets a few updates. Now, when you use Circle to Search you’ll have an option to save that search in the Screenshots app, which feels like a logical place to keep tabs on your previous queries. You can also turn on a new feature to show suggested search phrases in Gboard based on things you save to Screenshots. And if you’ve added tickets or credit cards to Google Wallet with a screenshot, you’ll be able to save those in the Screenshots app, too.
There are a handful of other features in the feature drop for previous-gen Pixel phones, including Identity Check, which will require additional authentication if the phone detects it’s in a new location and sensitive settings are being accessed. It all starts rolling out today for phones on Android 15 and Pixel 6 and newer phones.
