Google is granting its Pixel smartphones the ability to summarise notifications in an upcoming update. However, unlike Apple, who struggled with the feature at first, the tech giant is taking the necessary precaution and only enabling it for chat conversations.
The feature, first reported by Android Authority in August, uses generative AI. While powerful, the system cautions users that the generated text “may contain errors.”
Not only that, but the system will enable the feature only for “longer messages” and “group conversations” to improve the accuracy of the summaries. That way, the AI has more information and context, reducing the likelihood of mistakes. However, if users do not find these summaries helpful at all, they can simply disable them individually by going to “Notifications summaries” in settings.
Android Authority further elaborated that the feature will only summarise notifications between 25 and 200 words, with a maximum limit of 50 summaries per day. Additionally, the system generates summaries three minutes after receiving a notification, likely to conserve resources or avoid interrupting users while they read, as the publication theorises.
As per The Verge’s report, the feature will arrive later this month as part of this month’s pixel update for the Pixel 9 series and newer, excluding the Pixel 9A. On top of AI summaries, the update will also automatically sort your notifications and even silence those at a lower priority.
Moreover, the update will also introduce scam detection for third-party chat apps like Telegram and Discord. With this update, moving forward, any suspicious notifications will bear a label that reads “likely scam”. If users still choose to tap and interact with the notification, it will trigger a system pop-up, advising them to be cautious.
(Source: Android Authority, The Verge)
