Good news! Old Pixel phones will get Pixel 4's features
What's the story
Google's latest flagship phones, the Pixel-4-event-all-the-major-announcements/story">Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, have gone official with some new hardware and software features including Motion Sense, IR-based Face Unlock, Astrophotography, on-device Google Assistant, and more.
However, while most of these features will remain exclusive to Pixel 4-series, Google will soon bring some of the new software features to its older devices like Pixel 3 and 3a.
Feature #1
Night Sight with Astrophotography
With Pixel 4, Google has improved Night Sight, its popular low-light photography mode which lets you capture rich details and colors in the dark without flash support.
Interestingly, this time around, the company has also added an Astrophotography capability, using which you can take a photo of the night sky.
Now, this cool photography mode is coming to Pixel 3-series and Pixel 3a phones.
Twitter Post
Here's an official confirmation from Google
#NightSight already helps you take beautiful photos in the dark. Now you can use it for shots of the night sky.🌙✨ Coming to Pixel 3a and Pixel 3 as well as #pixel4. #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/o4bORnPc6j
— Google (@Google) October 15, 2019
Feature #2
Live Caption is also coming to Pixel 3 and 3a
Further, Live Caption, as the name suggests, transcribes audio into text in realtime. It will be available for the Pixel 4 out-of-the-box and will reach the Pixel 3 and 3a in December via a software update.
Live Caption is an Android 10 feature and it could make way to non Google-branded phones in the future.
An overview
Live Caption sounds like a gaming-changing feature
With Live Caption, you get a real-time transcription of what's being said in any video or audio, in any app, across the entire OS. And with transcripts of the audio, you can simply find relevant information through a basic search.
It could also be revolutionary for users with impaired hearing to engage with content that would otherwise be difficult for them to consume.
Information
Live Caption works in offline mode as well
Live Caption uses local machine learning sorcery to transcribe audio and hence, it works in offline mode as well. This means, if you have a recorded lecture, you could transcribe it without the internet. It's also secure, given the audio and captions are processed locally.