SAID THE BEST THING IS IF YOU JUST SQUEEZE THE DEVICE.

“We asked our researchers — and we have some amazing researchers, such as ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery) fellows in the discipline of input, human-computer interaction — what is the best way to open the Assistant? If we can do anything, now that we are building hardware, what would you like to see?,” Rakowski said.

“They looked at things like dedicated buttons, gestures and things you can do on the screen, but they came back and said the best thing is if you just squeeze the device as you are holding it.”

Google’s hardware engineers found a way to embed tiny sensors into the sides of the device and apply machine learning so Pixel knows the difference between an intentional squeeze, firm grip or someone running with the device, Rakowski said.

Meanwhile, Google has decided to remove the headphone jack on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL despite mocking competitors last year for doing the same. Instead there will be an adapter for the analog 3.5mm headphone in the box which will connect into the USB-C port for digital audio and dual front-facing stereo speakers, which will work for both phone calls and multimedia playback.

In a similar fashion to competitors such as Apple and Motorola, Google said it now believes wireless is the future.

“We’ve seen that people are more and more going wireless, so we put a lot of effort into upgrading to Bluetooth 5.0 and Hi-Fi (audio) codecs,” Querioz said.

The Pixel 2 and 2 XL are the first smartphones to get Google Lens, a technology that will look at an image and then use machine learning to get you more information on what it is. You will be able to take photos of landmarks, books, music albums, movies, artwork and even posters or business cards, and Lens will tell you more about it or give you options for what to do with it.

“Because we are designing the hardware, software and AI together in Pixel, we are able to bring these sort of things to Pixel first,” Querioz said.

“Whether it is music detection, squeezing your phone to get to the Assistant, the optical image stabilization and video stabilization, or the depth map for selfies... You’re going to see more and more of these experiences either exclusively on Pixel or Pixel first.”