Google’s June Pixel Drop Includes Android 16 for Pixel Devices, Accessibility Improvements, More
Google last week released its Pixel Drop update for June. The monthly software upgrade includes, most notably, the official release of Android 16 for Pixel devices, VIP contacts, accessibility enhancements, and much more. The brand-new improvements were highlighted in a blog post by Austin S. Lin, technical program manager at Google.
“Your Pixel just got an upgrade with the June Pixel Drop, full of new features and updates that make your devices more helpful, personalized and accessible,” Lin wrote in the introduction to Google’s announcement. “Android 16 also starts rolling out to Pixel devices today. Here are a few new things you can do with your Pixel!”
Most pertinent to my purview are the accessibility improvements. According to Lin, users are able to use Live Search in the Magnifier app—available on the Play Store—to help them “learn more about your surroundings in real time without needing to take a picture first.” If you’re looking for a specific dish on a restaurant menu, for example, it’s now possible to type what you’re looking for and Magnifier then will highlight matches on screen, along with giving a little haptic nudge. Elsewhere, Lin wrote it’s possible to use LE audio features with hearing aids to “take calls on the go and access your hearing aid presets, as well as change your ambient volume through your Pixel phone settings.” This functionality is available on Pixel 9 and newer running Android 16, Google said.
Finally, Lin notes Google’s Expressive Captions accessibility feature has been updated so as to “capture elongated words” such as yessss—particularly useful with sporting events. Beyond the United States, Expressive Captions is available in Canada and the United Kingdom. I wrote about Expressive Captions late last year for my old Forbes column, as the feature first arrived on Android as part of the December 2024 Pixel Drop.
Google has posted a video to YouTube all about the June Pixel Drop.
