In 2023, rumors of a new Google AI assistant (nicknamed “Pixie”) began to emerge. The idea of an on-device smart assistant appealed for a number of reasons, privacy and performance among them, but it missed its planned launch date. Google hasn’t said anything else about it, until now — Pixie is back as Pixel Sense, and is slated to release with the Google Pixel 10.
Google describes the new app with one line: “Get the most personalized experienced based on the things you do on your Pixel,” according to Android Authority. In other words, Pixel Sense will pull and collate data from your other apps, as well as from texts, images, and media files. It can also use screenshots in a similar way as the Pixel Screenshot function.
Despite Gemini‘s presence in the majority of Google apps, it cannot currently use the information in these apps for contextual answers. Through Pixel Sense, it will be able to provide answers to questions involved personal data — but since everything is processed on-device, it should never reach Google’s servers.
So why is this possible now when it wasn’t before? Easy: Gemini Nano. This is a more compact version of Google Gemini. Think of it like this: small bottle, big genie. Between Gemini Nano and the new Tensor chips going into the Pixel 10, the handset has enough power to pull off functions the lineup couldn’t do before.
The Google Pixel 10 is expected to launch around August 2025. So far, the smartphone looks to be on track to meet that date; barring any catastrophic delays, you could have Google’s most powerful AI yet pretty soon.
Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it’s a…
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