With the Pixel Buds Pro 2 just days away from hitting store shelves, Pixel Buds Pro users have noticed a significant change to the way the earbuds handle notifications. Google has now confirmed that the change is permanent.
The change applies to the touch-and-hold functionality of both the first- and second-generation Pixel Buds Pro. And it’s interesting considering that Apple just added hands-free and voice-free notification handling to its AirPods, because Google essentially just took away one of its own silent features.
What’s going on?
Why Google changed the Pixel Buds Pro’s Touch and Hold feature
Touch and Hold allowed Pixel Buds Pro to have the Google Assistant read out notifications without having to give the chatbot a verbal command. But a little over a week ago, Pixel Buds Pro owners began posting on Reddit about the feature suddenly stopping. Instead of the usual notifications, Touch and Hold responded with, “Touch and Hold is no longer reading notifications,” and asked users to say “read notifications” instead.
Calls to Google support yielded no results, as support engineers were unaware of any change. But Google has now confirmed that the option has indeed changed – but that’s okay, because it’s moved to a farm where it can play with Google Reader, the Goo.gl URL shortener, Google Podcasts and YouTube Stories all day long.
It appears that the feature has indeed been discontinued and more changes may be coming. spotted by 9to5GoogleGoogle has now updated its Community pages with a notification explanation of the change. “Based on your feedback, we’re announcing the following changes to your Google Assistant notifications on Pixel Buds as we evaluate further notification changes,” Google says. “Assistant will no longer read out unread notifications when you use the Press Assistant feature. Assistant will also no longer automatically read out unread notifications or allow you to respond.”
The change is likely part of Google’s shift to Gemini, its AI assistant. As we said in our Pixel Buds Pro 2 hands-on: “In the same way that Google has shamelessly put Gemini front and center in its latest phones, you’ll be able to use Gemini on the Pixel Buds Pro 2, and it will essentially be the smart assistant here.”