Call Screen on Pixel devices gets Gemini-powered contextual replies

Pixel phones offer a handy calling feature that lets Google Assistant answer calls on your behalf. It lets you find out who’s calling and why, and even suggests contextual replies to perform basic tasks like confirming or canceling appointments. We recently spotted evidence suggesting that Google was working on supercharging this feature using AI to offer better contextual replies. This functionality is now rolling out to Pixel devices with the December 2024 Pixel Drop.

Google says the updated feature will use Gemini Nano on Pixel devices to offer more relevant replies, allowing you to answer or ask follow-up questions without taking the call. This feature will only be available on Pixel 9 series devices in the US and will support conversations in English.

Along with Gemini-powered contextual replies, Google is also releasing a change that will let you view a transcription of the conversation between the caller and the AI agent during an automatic Call Screen. This change will make it even easier to avoid spam calls. Unlike the upgraded contextual replies, the Automatic Call Screening view will be available in English on Pixel 6 and newer models in the US.

The December 2024 Pixel Drop brings many other improvements, including new Expressive Captions that use AI to more accurately depict the intensity and emotion of someone’s speech in any content with sound. The update also introduces improvements for the Pixel Screenshots app, Ultra HDR photo support in the Instagram app, a noise cancelation feature for the Pixel Recorder app, and an easy-to-use Simple View UI for Android devices.