How Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Will Change Smartphones Forever

Updated August 12 with details on three leaked features and their possible rollout to Android; and details on the iPhone 16’s competing AI software.

Next week will see the launch of the Pixel 9 smartphone series at its Made By Google event. The annual event lets Google show off what it thinks a smartphone should stand for. Last year’s Pixel 8 series introduced new displays, improved cameras, updated software, and a custom-designed Tensor Mobile chip.

All of these changes have allowed Google to introduce the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro as the first smartphones powered by AI. In the process, Google has defined how generative AI can be brought to the mobile world. A year later, with this market view now the norm, Google can build on this success, solidify its vision for AI in smartphones, and dominate AI.

This week, Google is doing the same thing again, but this time it’s not about defining the market but consolidating it.

Google has a number of AI tools that the Pixel platform has reviewed, and similar tools are available from many Android manufacturers. You have tools to remove, move, or edit individual elements from an image; you have the option to move expressions between images to get the best possible composite image; and you have tools to clean up the audio recorded in a video.

You have tools to transcribe audio, summarize information from web pages and email, and search based on a screenshot or even a circled portion of the screen. AI can help screen spam calls, act as a translator while traveling, suggest responses and topics, and more when you compose on your phone.

All of these features first appeared on the Pixel 8 series before spreading throughout the ecosystem. In fact, Google’s circular search feature debuted with Samsung’s Galaxy AI platform, which mirrored many of the Pixel’s features and added several of its own. Other manufacturers have introduced their own AI tools, and chipmakers have included AI routines to support AI code.

All of these phones follow the same direction and principles that Google publicly laid out with the Pixel 8. That direction will only be confirmed this week with the launch of the Pixel 9 and a host of new AI features.

Update: Monday, August 12In addition to the potential rebranding of the group to “Google AI,” the team at Life Hacker We’ve picked out three potential AI tools that could make their debut at tomorrow’s Made by Google event:

“These features include Add Me, a feature that may use AI to add additional people to a photo; Studio, which appears to be an AI image generator; and Pixel Screenshots, which may scan the screenshots in your library and turn them into an easily searchable database.”

They also note that these features are expected to require the Tensor Mobile G4 chip, which will debut across the Pixel 9 lineup. Apple is taking a similar approach when it launched the iPhone 16 platform, limiting its Apple Intelligence suite to the all-new phones or the premium iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max at last year’s price.

It’s not uncommon for Android manufacturers to launch their own AI services for a new phone or chip before rolling it back into their portfolio; Samsung’s Galaxy AI launched for the Galaxy S24 family in January, naturally as a stepping stone to the Z Fold6 and Z Flip6 launches last week. However, Samsung has pushed these features to older Galaxy S models and is working to bring as many features as possible to the Galaxy A35 and A55.

While the new features may help sell the Pixel 9 family, they should eventually become available across the full Android platform, furthering Google’s vision of AI-powered smartphones.

There is also another competitive aspect with the rise of genre-defining AI in Android. Apple is nowhere to be seen.

Update: Sunday, August 11How big a challenge will Apple’s iPhone pose in the battle to define generative AI for the 2024/2025 smartphone release season? Two key factors will be the adoption rate of new phones and the availability of software.

Gurman also emphasized the four iPhone models that will be unveiled in September (iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max), and looked at the potential for higher sales and demand for the new phones than usual. This is an important point for those measuring the impact of Apple’s AI toolset; with the exception of last year’s top-of-the-line iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple won’t be pushing its generative AI tools to its myriad existing users.

In fact, the absence of new devices does not mean the absence of Apple’s intelligence. According to the latest financial forecast Apple provided to investors, the company is neither planning nor expecting any significant increase in sales. There will be new phones, but don’t expect a sudden wave of upgrades to expand the user base for Apple’s AI plans.

Without a wave of existing iPhone users to capture the zeitgeist, Apple will struggle to shift the conversation about generative AI on smartphones away from the one decided by Google and its Android partners.

Google’s Pixel launch came two weeks after the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. Apple’s September launch didn’t include generative AI or any of the new frontiers it would explore. The iPhone 15 series was arguably the last great smartphone to launch without AI. Apple’s first chance to talk about iPhone AI didn’t come until its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

The confusingly named Apple Intelligence software won’t be available right away; it will have to wait until the iPhone 16 family launches in September. It won’t be ported to any existing iPhone (except for the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max in 2023). Apple Intelligence won’t be ready for the iPhone 16 launch in September 2024. A limited set of tools will be included in the October iOS update, with a basic ChatGPT implementation by the end of the year, and the full suite shown off at WWDC won’t arrive until the first half of 2025.

Apple still has some catching up to do with the first generation of AI-powered smartphones,

Meanwhile, Google is pushing Android forward with its next generation of AI-powered smartphones set to be unveiled to the public. Google is the company that will decide the future direction of AI.

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