There are a bunch of new AI features coming to the Google Pixel 9, but one of the most intriguing (for me anyway) is the Call Notes feature. Call Notes is designed to listen to your phone calls, summarizing all the main talking points and offering a full transcript of the conversation. That way you always know what was said, and what details were agreed upon.
Call Notes hasn’t been released to the public yet, but Android sleuth AssembleDebug did manage to get a preview build of Call Notes running on their own device. This preview has all the basic functions you’d expect from a feature like this, including an on/off button. But Android Police noticed that there does appear to be a catch — Call Notes seemingly can't be enabled for calls with existing contacts.
Call Notes 👀 pic.twitter.com/pq8AhC7wMWAugust 19, 2024
From the looks of things, this preview version of Call Notes will only automatically switch on during calls to non-contacts. There appear to be four settings on offer to activate Call Notes for every non-contact call, for incoming non-contact calls, for outgoing non-contact calls and never.
That suggests that the only way to switch on Call Notes when you’re speaking to saved contacts is to switch it on manually, which would be kind of a hassle. You’d think there would be more configuration options for numbers you have saved in your phone, like the option to set Call Notes to switch on for some contacts and not others. Like your super-flakey cousin who can never remember where he has to be or when.
We don’t know which countries or languages will support Call Notes right now, and Google has been rather vague on that particular point, only confirming that it won’t be available everywhere, or in every language. However, the good news is that AssembleDebug typically doesn’t use Pixel devices to test apps. So the fact they were able to get a version of Call Notes running means this feature may not always be a Pixel 9 exclusive.
As for which devices might support Call Notes, that isn’t clear. Considering the whole point of Call Notes is that everything runs on-device (for privacy reasons), it’s likely that any phone that can’t run Gemini Nano will be excluded. While this doesn’t guarantee that every phone capable of running Google’s on-device AI software will be eligible, since the Pixel 8 series supports Gemini Nano, it’s possible Google might at least bring the feature to those phones.
Google hasn’t confirmed whether Call Notes will be a release day feature on the Pixel 9, or whether it will be arriving as part of a future feature drop. The vagueness surrounding some of its language certainly doesn’t bode well for a release in the immediate future. Still, we won’t know for sure until the Pixel 9 actually gets released later this week. Until then all we can do is be patient and wait.
While you’re waiting, be sure to check out Pixel 9 hands-on review, Pixel 9 Pro & 9 Pro XL hands-on review and out Pixel 9 Pro Fold hands-on review for our early impressions on all four new Pixel phones.
