New Pixel Feature Drop brings astrophotography features, new Pride wallpapers, and more

As is the case every once in a while, Google has rolled out the latest Feature Drop for its Pixel line of devices that are currently supported, adding a few new features. This month’s additions include enhancements to the astrophotography capabilities of the devices, new wallpapers and ringtones for Pride month, Locked folders, and more.

Pixel devices feature enhanced astrophotography capabilities through their Night Sight mode that is used for low light images. The company has boasted of the prowess of the feature in the past and is now improving it by introducing support for Night Sight videos. Users can shoot a video of moving stars in the night sky and choose to have both the still image and the video saved to the device. This feature is rolling out to Pixel 4 and newer devices.

Another feature that is rolling out to Pixel users is Locked Folder – a capability announced during the company’s I/O conference. As the name suggests, these folders are secured using a passcode or fingerprint and allow users to save confidential or personal content within them without the fear of accidentally opening or sharing them. The feature allows users to also directly access these images from the Camera app.

Google Assistant is getting smarter with this Feature Drop, as the digital assistant can now help with answering and rejecting calls with a voice command when users’ devices are out of reach. Gboard is adding quick clipboard paste snippets that make it easier to paste recently copied content to the keyboard, a nifty use case for pasting OTPs or entering contact information in apps like Messenger.

Some of the search giant’s features are also expanding to more regions, with the first being the Call Screen capability that helps answer calls on behalf of the user. That feature is rolling out to users in Japan. The Recorder app’s audio transcription capabilities, on the other hand, are being made available this July to four new English dialects that include Singaporean, Australian, Irish, and British English. Additionally, car crash collision detection is expanding to users in Spain, Ireland, and Singapore.

Lastly, the Mountain View firm is adding new wallpapers and ringtones for Pride month. These include three wallpaper designs from Ashton Attzs, along with ringtones and notification tones created by LGBTQ+ artists and YouTube Creators.

The Feature Drop also addresses a few bugs such as the one that prevents devices from wireless charging on some chargers, the inability to edit motion pictures, and more. You can read the entire changelog here.