Your Google Pixel can’t wait to tell you about all the new stuff in its latest Feature Drop
Every few months, Pixel owners get blessed with a handful of new tools that enhance their overall experience.Feature Dropsare usually timed with a security patch, bundling all sorts of updates to existing apps and services along with the usual round of bug fixes. If you aren’t tuned into this sort of thing, new features can usually pass you right by, but with Google’s latest addition to Pixel Tips, you’ll finally be prompted on what’s changed with your device.
Rolling out as part of this month’s update, the Pixel Tips app now alerts users to whatever’s changed on their device following a Feature Drop (via9to5Google). I can confirm this prompt showed up for me after updating and restarting a Pixel 4a 5G. That said, because the March update hasn’t been shipped for Pixel 6 and 6 Pro devices just yet, I haven’t spotted it yet on Google’s latest flagship series.
In this case, the Pixel Tips splash screen highlighted two new features for me:custom text stickersand thebattery widget. While the former actually started to roll out last week for some users, the battery widget didn’t arrive for most until this past week. It’s an exciting addition to Android 12, one we’ve been waiting for since last year.
Google provides a ton of updates for its Pixel phones, often surprising users with new additions without much information on when they first arrived. Although the splash screen might be frustrating for power users who stay up on the latest news through sites like ours, highlighting what’s just arrived on their phone after a software update seems like a no-brainer addition. And hey, if you already know what’s changed, tapping the “Skip” button makes it all disappear.
Feature Drops are becoming even more exciting now that they’repart of the beta program, although in our tests, this new update did not include the same splash screens as the stable build. Still, with a reboot now alerting you as to what’s new, it’ll be a whole lot easier to tell what exciting tools have been added to your phone.
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