C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is once again leaning on AI-driven features to promote the Pixel 9 series.
- Photo editing tools dominate Google’s list.
- Only a handful of these features are things we expect to see debut with the Pixel 9.
In just over three weeks, Google is going to launch its Pixel 9 series. With enthusiasm for Pixel phones really growing, now’s the time for Google to get as many eyes as it can on its new hardware — and that means advertising the heck out it. So far, many of those promo efforts have attempted to highlight the functionality of Google’s Gemini AI. Today the company shares a new YouTube Short that wants to tell you about the “22 reasons you should say goodbye to your phone and hello to #Pixel9 Pro.”
Google presents this clip almost like a game, inviting viewers to hit pause at random and stop playback on a reason to abandon your current phone for a new pixel. Let’s take a look at how compelling these reasons are, and see if we can count all 22:
- Wishing your photo had more scenery
- Forgetting the movie your friend recommended
- Forgetting the show your friend recommended
- Phone calls where you can barely hear the other person
- Concert videos that look too far away
- Your toddler looking everywhere except the camera
- Scrubbing videos for answers
- Gatekeeping
- So many emails. So little time.
- Screening calls yourself
- Half the fam looking at the camera
- Not capturing the right moment
- Spending hours on hold
- The sky not being right
- The same old memes
- Lost in translation
- Forgetting what restaurant your friend liked
- Awkward photo requests to strangers
- Mom never being in the pic
- Photobombers
- Blurry photos
- Writers’ block
Sure enough, after twenty-two, they start looping around. Right away, we start recognizing some of the features Google’s talking about here, like Magic Eraser for cleaning up unwanted stuff in pics, and Magic Editor for making your sky pop. And really, more than a few of those seem to be talking about the same functionality. There’s what sure look like references to Hold for Me and Live Translate, while others, like this “gatekeeping” business, are a little more nebulous.
What about those three very similar “remembering what your friend shared” entries? Once again, we’re not entirely sure, but we could see this being in reference to Google AI’s Pixel Screenshots feature, which would let the phone scan saved screens for details like the ones mentioned here — we’re just not sure we can picture users snapping screenshots of random conversations like this in the first place.
And finally, thank you, Google, as we appreciate you calling us out on scrubbing through the video to write all these down.
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