Google's advanced Recorder facility is coming to older Pixel devices

The Google Recorder is a new app from the Mountain View company that turns a Pixel 4 or 4 XL into a device that can not only save audio but live-transcribe it and search through this AI-generated text at the user's discretion later. This new function could be a real asset to those who need assistance recording meetings or other interprofessional dialogue.

Given this potential, it is a shame that older Google-brand phones - most of which are also AI-empowered - cannot harness the same new abilities at present. This discrepancy was recently highlighted by u/Valendr0s on Reddit, who bemoaned the inability to run Recorder on their Pixel 3 XL. Its maker must have been paying attention, as an official Pixel Community representative replied to the thread in question.

This individual noted Valendr0s' interest in the Recorder, and proceeded to assure the user that "We plan to roll it out to older Pixel devices in a future software update." This may please fans of Google hardware in a world in updating their phone is getting less and less cost-effective. However, it is not all good news for these users: Android Police has reported that a second new Pixel feature, Screen Attention, may not going to be ported to older devices with the same alacrity.

This statement makes rather less sense, as Screen Attention is a setting in which a phone's front cameras (and not their new-fangled Soli radar chips) remains vigilant for a user's eyes in order to prevent the display from sleeping so long as someone is still looking at it. However, Google has no plans to do so "for now".