Google Pixel phones include a call screen feature that could soon be upgraded with new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, according to a report. The Mountain View-based tech giant is reportedly working on an “AI Responses” feature that will generate intelligent responses based on what the caller said, instead of the standard responses seen in the current version of Call Screen. The feature is currently under development, so it will not be seen in the latest version of the Phone app on Pixel devices and may roll out to the company’s devices in the future.
Google Pixel would get AI responses in the call screen
The call screening feature in the Phone app on Pixel smartphones allows users to set Google Assistant to receive incoming calls and ask why the call was made. It is available in select regions (not India) and works on all Pixel smartphones.
Last year, Google added the pop-up replies feature to Call Screen, which allowed users to respond to the caller if they didn’t want to answer a call. For example, if the call screening feature told the user that they were receiving an incoming call about making a doctor’s appointment, users could choose between confirming or declining the appointment and the assistant on the device could notify the caller.
While useful in certain scenarios, the feature is quite limited in the range of responses a user can send, and it does not work if the caller’s response is too complex. Now an Android Authority APK demolish reveals that the company is working to improve contextual responses with “AI Replies”.
AI responses in Google Pixel’s call screen feature
Photo credit: Android Authority/AssembleDebug
The publication said that the company could use AI to process the caller’s response and show them more relevant answers. Based on the image, AI Replies is described as “Call Assist suggests new intelligent AI-based replies based on the caller’s call screen responses.”
9to5Google too dug in the Phone app on a Pixel smartphone to find more evidence of this feature. The publication found strings of code suggesting that the AI-generated responses were internally called “Dobby.” Another string of code reportedly revealed that the feature would be powered by “Dobby LLM.”
This is believed to be a codename for Gemini Nano which already powers some of the AI features in the Google Pixel 9 series. However, the company may also use a large, separate language model to power the functionality. Currently, Google has not shared any information on when AI responses in Call Screen might be released.
