Pixel 2 confirmed to have squeezable sides

As we count down to the Pixel announcement on October 5 (Australia time) the leaks are starting to slip through the cracks. Today has been especially leaky with colours, storage sizes and pricing leaking for the Pixel 2 — but wait, there’s more.

Android Police have torn down the latest Google app and have found some interesting tidbits of information.

Active edges

A few weeks ago we reported on the FCC filing where HTC forgot to hide the mention of the “Active Edge”. The latest Google app contains text referring to a “squeeze gesture”.

Squeeze for your Assistant
To change settings for the squeeze gesture, go to your phone’s Active Edge settings.
Active Edge settings
from /xml/assistant_device_id_nexus_settings.xml

We expect this squeezable to be customisable, if not by software from Google but surely not ong after by one of the more enterprising developers out there.

Customisable Google Bar

With theme support common in Oreo through the use of the theming engine inserted into AOSP by Sony it seems that Google are preparing to allow users to possibly theme how their Google search bar appears on their home screen. While Google have been reluctant to allow theming of their proprietary icons and widgets in the past but with theming most likely coming with 8.1 on the Pixel 2 they seem to be trying to allow this customisation — surely it’s better for Google than a user removing it entirely?

Change your Google Assistant’s voice

Remember when you used to be able to change the voice on your GPS to Arnie, Yoda or Darth Vader? While maybe not to that extent just yet it seems that Google are going to allow customisation of the voice that Google Assistant talks to you in. Android Police have found a couple of lines of code that suggest the user will be able to select the voice that they hear.

Choose the voice your Assistant will use to respond to you
Available voices

Other code of note

Some other lines of code that were interesting were the mention of an ability to change the hotword — the line of code says “new hotword available now” and suggests it will be coming in a future update. Google may be preparing the app for that in the future but it may well be a while before it arrives as there is no other mention.

There is also mention of resuming podcasts using Google Assistant, multi-step actions and Google Assistant playing sleeping sounds (relaxing-type music).

How many of these actually make the final cut remains to be seen but when Google makes their big announcement on October we will hopefully find out more. It is expected that they will announce some of these enhancements alongside a new, mini Google Home, oh and of course a couple of new Pixel 2 phones. Anyone waiting for a Pixel 2?