There are three new apps coming to Pixel phones this year

While all of the hype is on Google’s new phones and earbuds, there are three new apps to help make Pixel phones more useful. Google is finally giving Pixel users a real weather app, a new AI studio for generating images, and a new app called Screenshots to help people stay more organized.

Weather

We’ll start with this app since it’s the most visually striking of the new programs. At the top of the page, you’ll see the current temperature and an animation of the weather. For instance, when I tried it, I saw some grey clouds and the silhouette of Toronto’s CN tower, which is pretty cool.

Moving down the page, you see things like AI weather insights, an hourly forecast, and a 10-day forecast. Below that, there are more niche metrics like air quality, UV index and wind speed.

I’m pretty happy with this app’s design since it finally showcases all the funky Google Material You weather widgets in a centralized location. This means I don’t need to download third-party weather apps onto my Pixels anymore. It still remains to be seen how accurate the app is, but at first glance, I’m excited to see more.

Pixel Screenshots

This new app is sort of like a diary, but all your entries are screenshots. Then you can go into the app later and use AI to search through all your screenshots to find things like receipts, notes, photos, locations and other reminders you’ve saved but are likely lost in your full-on-camera roll.

Overall, the app is supposedly analyzing all your screenshots to pull relevant and searchable information. I’m not sure how exactly that differs from Google Photos (or why this feature wasn’t integrated into Photos), but at least in this new app, it’s more focused and easier to organize.

Notably, the app’s function sounds like Microsoft’s much-maligned Recall feature, which the company delayed after outcry over privacy issues. Recall would constantly take screenshots of activity on a PC and then people could use AI-powered natural language search to look up things they did on their PC. Unlike Google’s Pixel Screenshot app, Recall worked automatically in the background, raising the risk of it capturing sensitive information. Pixel Screenshots, however, appears to work only with screenshots captured by the user, giving people more control over what the app can access.

Pixel Studio

Another app launching in preview alongside the new phones is Pixel Studio, an AI generator that you can ask to make things like ‘retro video game pixel art’ or ‘side table decor.’

This is a semi-interesting app to me, but I do see how people can use it to make quick jokes to send to their friends or to brainstorm ideas for a project. I assume Google will build this out with more AI creation features over time, but in its infancy, it’s pretty straightforward.

You can read all the news about today’s Google event by following this link.