Google’s Pixel 9 might use AI to help you search for screenshots

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Key Takeaways

  • The Pixel 9 will likely ship with Google AI, which contains three new features.
  • “Pixel Screenshots” could use AI to help you search screenshots.
  • The feature will summarize screenshots and save metadata to help you find anything contained in them.

A report by Android Authority suggests the Google Pixel 9 will ship with a set of new features under the banner of “Google AI,” including “Pixel Screenshots.”

Pixel Screenshots uses AI to search screenshots, including creating summaries to answer questions about their information. The app will also save metadata such as app names, web links, and the data and time the screenshot was captured so you can search later using these details. 

According to a source inside Google, the new feature creates a “searchable library” by saving and processing helpful information from screenshots.

Pixel Screenshots has drawn comparisons to Microsoft’s Recall feature, which attracted criticism over privacy concerns. Microsoft Recall, available exclusively for Copilot+ PCs, uses AI to search anything you’ve done on your PC so you can recover it at a later date.

However, fears that attackers accessing PCs could read everything the feature stores have caused controversy, leading Microsoft to alter how Recall works, including a clearer opt-in request.

Pixel Screenshot is More Privacy-Focused Than Recall

Google’s new AI feature doesn’t have that much in common with Recall. For a start, it doesn’t capture everything you do: just data from your screenshots. Nothing is sent to the cloud, with everything processed on-device.

Pixel Screenshots is also a strictly opt-in affair. Though the app will require access to your media files if you choose to use it, you can decide whether or not to enable its AI processing. If you don’t want to opt-in to AI processing, you can switch this off through the Pixel Screenshot app settings. The app can still be used to view screenshots, though they won’t be processed with AI, and their data won’t be searchable.

Google AI New Features

The other new features coming to Google AI include:

  • The “Add Me” camera function, which Google says is designed to “make sure everyone is included” when taking group shots, is similar to Google’s Best Take, a feature that merges take including different people. 
  • “Studio” is a new name for the “Creative Assistant” app, which will integrate into Pixel’s screenshot editor to create stickers and might work as a generative AI image generator.

We should learn more about all three of these new features and Google AI this summer, as we expect the Pixel 9 series to land at Made by Google on August 13.