Google Pixel phones come equipped with a Call Screen feature that is reportedly set to receive enhancements in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. The tech giant based in Mountain View is said to be developing an ‘AI Replies’ feature that will provide intelligent responses tailored to the caller’s input, rather than the usual responses found in the current Call Screen version. The feature is presently in development, hence it won’t be visible in the newest version of the Phone app on Pixel devices, and might be released on the company’s devices later. The Google Pixel is set to receive AI-powered responses in its Call Screen feature. This functionality, available in the Phone app on Pixel smartphones, enables users to prompt the Google Assistant to answer incoming calls and inquire about the purpose of the call.
It can be found in specific regions (excluding India) and is compatible with all Pixel smartphones.
Last year, Google introduced the contextual replies feature to Call Screen, giving users the option to reply to the caller when they preferred not to answer a call. For instance, when presented with an incoming call by the Call Screen feature notifying them of an appointment booking to their doctor’s office, users have the option to either confirm or decline the appointment. The on-device assistant can then inform the caller accordingly. Although handy in specific situations, the feature has restrictions on the variety of responses users can send, and it fails when the caller’s response is overly intricate. An APK teardown by Android Authority now uncovers that the company is enhancing contextual replies with “AI Replies”. The publication suggests that the company could leverage AI to analyze the caller’s feedback and provide the user with more personalized responses (Google Working).
According to the image, AI Replies is portrayed as “Call Assist suggesting new AI-powered smart replies based on the caller’s Call Screen responses”. 9to5Google also delved into a Pixel smartphone’s Phone app to discover further evidence of the feature. The publication stumbled upon code strings hinting that the AI-generated responses were internally referred to as “dobby”. Another code string apparently disclosed that the feature would be fueled by “dobby LLM”. It is widely believed that this serves as a codename for Gemini Nano, the technology behind several AI capabilities found in the Google Pixel 9 series.
The company could potentially utilize a distinct large language model to enhance the feature. Google has yet to disclose the release date for AI Replies in Call Screen.
