Pixel phones in Australia are getting new features including the new Google Assistant

At the launch of the Pixel 4 phones, Google showed off a new, smarter, smaller and faster of their Assistant. They’ve already rolled out the new Assistant in the US, but it’s arriving in Australia for Pixel 4 owners from today. There’s also some neat new features for older Pixel users coming too.

Google has worked to bring the smarts of the Assistant to your phone, with less reliance on sending data to the cloud for speech processing which means you get answers to your queries faster – and using less data.

The redesigned Google Assistant also takes up less room on your screen. The compact look lets you grab quick information from the Assistant without it taking over your screen.

As well as being faster and more compact, it’s also more context aware. Google Assistant will now let you ‘ask the Assistant to “show my photos from Palm Beach” and then say “the ones with Sophie.” You can also then have the Assistant share that using a command like “Send that to mum.”

The new Google Assistant will roll out to Australian Pixel 4 devices in English by Dec 31st, 2019.

For older Pixel owners, there’s a slew of new features coming to your phone as well with Google saying users can expect to find new ways of ‘simplifying portrait photos, making Duo calls more seamless, speeding up and making Google Maps more accurate’.

Pixel owners (yes, even the original Pixel) can turn any photo in their photo roll into a portrait by blurring the background post-snap. When looking through your gallery in Google Photos, a new ‘Portrait Blur’ prompt will appear allowing you to add the familiar portrait blur to an image.

Another new feature being rolled out from today is for Google’s excellent Duo video calling app. Google will utilise on-device AI on the Pixel 4 to help ‘keep your audio consistent, the advanced display helps reduce choppy video chatting – and Duo will automatically adjust to keep you in the frame during a video call.’

The updates are rolling out to Pixel users over the next few weeks and Google promises that Pixel owners will be getting even more every few months