Pixel 4 leaks just won’t stop – here’s the next-gen Google Assistant and face unlock

Hopefully someone is bailing water out of the Pixel 4, because it’s leakier than the Titanic. The latest leak comes from Nextrift, who got its hands on a possible production model Pixel 4 XL and posted details including the first public look at the new Google Assistant.

The new Google Assistant was first announced at Google I/O in May. The new iteration promises lightning fast voice processing, making your interactions more seamless. Google says it’s up to 10 times faster thanks to queries being processed directly on the device instead of being sent to Google servers.

Assistant will also learn more about you, meaning, for example, once you’ve told it who your sister is, you can say, “Remind me to buy a present two weeks before my sister’s birthday” instead of explicitly saying their name.

Obviously you’ll have to provide Assistant an awful lot of information about yourself for this functionality to work well, but if you value convenience over privacy, it’s potentially very powerful.

Nextrift also shared details about the new face unlocking technology works. Apparently it works similarly to Apple’s Face ID technology, and quickly glancing at the device is enough to unlock it. Face unlock also reportedly works in the dark or when the phone is held at an odd angle, like upside down or sideways.

Since the Pixel 4 has done away with the fingerprint reader, there’s a lot of faith put into face unlock. Interestingly, a disclaimer in the settings page for facial recognition claims the device might be unlockable by someone who looks a lot like you, for example an identical sibling. Perhaps twins should stick to pattern or PIN.

We’ll find out the rest once the Google Pixel 4 event rolls around on the 15th October, but at this rate there’s probably more leaks to get through before then.