Watching Google formally announce the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro yesterday, I used to be struck by how a lot of its presentation targeted on probably the most elementary of smartphone options: the cellphone name. Smartphones could have grow to be miniature handheld computer systems, able to doing the whole lot from workplace work to filming motion pictures, however Google refuses to overlook concerning the cellphone a part of its smartphones. How refreshing.

“Pixel 7 is designed to be the best phone for actual phone calling,” stated Google product supervisor Brian Rakowski from the stage, earlier than outlining the particular enhancements coming with this 12 months’s Pixel. There’s Clear Calling for enhancing the audio high quality of voice calls and an upgraded Direct My Call to make it faster and simpler to navigate name middle cellphone bushes. Other options getting back from earlier Pixel units embrace Hold for Me and Call Screen.

The most elementary characteristic to assist with cellphone calls is Clear Calling, hints of which had been found in Google’s beta software program final month. It’s designed to make use of machine studying to chop down on background noise from individuals on the opposite finish of a Pixel 7 cellphone name, making them extra simply audible, “even if they’re on a windy street or in a noisy restaurant,” Google product supervisor Jonathan Eccles writes in a blog post. 

Google is way from the primary firm to implement noise suppression know-how like this. The likes of Nvidia and AMD already supply related performance on PCs for convention calls and streaming. But not like Apple, which hasn’t made a giant deal out of its Voice Isolation characteristic and hides it in an obscure sub-menu, Google offered Clear Calling entrance and middle throughout its presentation as one of many Pixel 7’s flagship options. 

Meanwhile, Direct My Call, which first launched with the Pixel 6 final 12 months, can be being upgraded. Direct My Call is designed that will help you navigate the usually difficult menus utilized by name facilities to triage your cellphone name. It transcribes the assorted choices, exhibiting them as on-screen textual content so it’s simpler to get an summary of all of the out there choices earlier than making your choice. Google says the characteristic has been used with 50 million enterprise calls since launch.

This 12 months, an improve to Direct My Call is designed to point out you these menu choices earlier than they’re really spoken aloud in a recorded message. In an interview with TechCrunch, Google’s Minni Shahi defined that that is attainable as a result of Google’s Duplex know-how “has already called the business and learned the menu options before the user places the call for the first time, allowing it to present the phone tree options.” Google’s weblog publish notes that it’ll be out there for “many of the most popular toll-free numbers in the US,” although TechCrunch notes that companies will should be enrolled in Direct My Call for it to work, so it’s unclear how extensively out there it’ll be.

Google’s deal with cellphone name options for its Pixel units is way from a brand new initiative. But giving them their very own part through the Pixel 7’s launch highlighted how necessary they’ve grow to be to Google’s advertising, the place they sit prominently alongside efficiency and digicam high quality claims.

Even way back to 2018’s Pixel 3, Google was promoting its Call Screen feature, which lets its telephones display screen spam calls and offer you transcriptions of its software program’s conversations with undesirable callers. During the corporate’s presentation yesterday, Rakowski stated this screening characteristic dealt with 600 million calls final 12 months.

Then, in 2020, the identical 12 months it launched the Pixel 5, Google launched Hold for Me, a characteristic that has Google Assistant monitor a name whenever you’re placed on maintain and provide you with a warning when it’s time so that you can communicate with an precise human being. Initially launched for the Pixel 5, 4A, and 4A 5G, the characteristic was subsequently launched for Pixel units going again to the Pixel 3.

Finally, there’s Wait Times, one other characteristic that launched alongside final 12 months’s Pixel 6 that has since been made out there on the Pixel 3A and up. Like Hold for Me, Wait Times is designed to chop down on the frustration of being positioned on maintain. But as a substitute of dealing with your name for you, the characteristic estimates the period of time you may be positioned on maintain based mostly on name lengths from different individuals who have dialed the identical quantity.

It’s nice to see Google persevering with to focus its improvement vitality on probably the most elementary of smartphone options, however it’s a disgrace that many of those applied sciences have remained stubbornly unique to the US. It’s an unlucky limitation contemplating Google’s Rakowski took a second to emphasise the worldwide availability of the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, which he says shall be out there to “even more users, in more places.” 

In explicit, Direct My Call and Wait Times are solely out there within the US. Call Screen is accessible throughout a number of nations, however solely customers within the US can have it work robotically, in response to Google’s support page. Meanwhile Hold for Me is barely out there in Australia and Canada exterior of the US. Thankfully, Google hasn’t talked about any geographical limitations for its Clear Calling characteristic.

Modern smartphones could also be full of a dizzying array of options, however Google’s presentation yesterday didn’t overlook concerning the fundamentals. After all, who cares a few cellphone that’s making an attempt to copy the standard of a standalone DSLR digicam if it will probably’t get fundamental cellphone calls proper?