Pixelated - Gone in a Glance

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

Welcome to episode 82 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Damien, and Will break down their reactions to Google's surprise release of Gemini 3 Flash. After talking through their preferred models and Gemini launchers, the crew discusses Android 16 QPR3's arrival and the long-awaited option to remove the At a Glance widget on Pixel. Finally, all three offer their visions for where Google is headed in 2026. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 00:47 - Gemini 3 Flash 15:12 - Android QPR3 and At a Glance 34:59 - Pixel patch 37:43 - Google's 2026 vision 43:26 - Wrap-up Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Read more Google announces Gemini 3 Flash with Pro-level performance, rolling out now Gemini app adds 3 Flash ‘Fast’ and ‘Thinking’ models, with 3 ‘Pro’ Here’s everything new in Android 16 QPR3 Beta 1 [Gallery] Android 16 QPR3 lets you remove At a Glance from your Pixel’s homescreen Listen to more 9to5 Podcasts The Sideload 9to5Mac Happy Hour Electrek Space Explored Feedback? Drop us a line at [e-mail], leave a comment on the post, or reach out to our producer.

Welcome to Pixelated episode 82. I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. This week, Avenor Damien and I talk through Google's latest Gemini launch, Gemini 3 Flash. It's the perfect time to reflect on Google's fairly successful year as far as its AI initiatives go, and it also gives us a chance to talk through our own experiences with Gemini. Before we wrap, we also dive into Android 16 QPR3's first beta and discuss the merits of being able to turn off Google's At-a-Glance widget for the very first time on Pixel. it's all coming out

so we are so close we are on the cusp of this holiday Christmas period and Google has decided to do some really cool things which is nice before this time of the year Gemini has had I think a kind of a sleeper update Abner this is this is going to be pretty big for the free tier Gemini

3 Flash. Fast thinking. There's brand new models. Let's get into this. Let's talk about why this is a really big deal for everybody. So last month they announced Gemini 3 Pro at the high end as their flagship model. A month later, they announced Gemini 3 Flash, which is really their workers, workhorse model. It is what is very popular among developers. And for end users, it's the one that they get without its general access, then no very generous usage limits, etc. Replacing 2.5 flash, this is the model that the vast majority of people will use, especially if they're not paying for any AI tiers. And it is competitive with Gemini 3 Pro and key benchmarks. It is the first time that this is the case. Historically, the next generation Flash model is competitive

with the previous generation pro model. And that's the case today. But it's also competitive with this generation's current pro model, which is very significant and deserved win from Google. It's in the term is a frontier model. It is at the state of the art. It is a state of the art. It is at the very edge of what's possible with AI. And Gemini Tree Flash is very much that. And it's a bit unexpected. I get the impression that this is like a move that has come at this time of year. Specifically, I'm guessing because people are going to be at home.

People are going to be utilizing these models and stuff like that. Like, I like in some respects that Google is almost gunning for the competitors a little bit. Like it almost feels like previous. They were kind of, yeah, they were caught on the back foot a little bit when Bard was first released, I guess, and chat GPT kind of taking a bit of mindshare. But it's nice to see these progressions. And like, I don't know about you guys, but I have used Gem and I more this year than I ever anticipated. I would ever do it. There's certain things that it does fantastically well, like even simple things, like create a holiday shopping list or create a holiday packing

list, like simple stuff like that is helpful. The fact that Google is giving people comparatively pro-level performance on a Gemini model for free with the opportunity to utilize it for pro-level tools i.e. development, a programming, all that kind of sort, because I'm going to ask you about a really cool question in the moment. I don't know if you guys are going to be like me playing around with it over this holiday period coming up and just to see what I can put it, put it through its paces. Yeah, it's interesting. I guess what tiers, what models do all use. We're all pro subscribers because of the pixel at least. What, what, what's our model of choice? Um, weird, that is a weird question. I just use the fast, I use the fastest one,

so I want answers quickly with Gemini three. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty much default. I have, I'm, I'm a home screen, um, doc user of Gemini. Yes. It's so weird, because I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm one of those people who would, you probably think I'm anti-AI, the way I speak about it, but there's certain things I do utilize it for, um, getting. information. You all know if you listen to the podcast regularly that I ask Jim and I live about what sports are on TV. And Will, you can probably utilize that as well if you're not doing so. Like I just want answers fast, basically. So Will, where is it on your home screen? How do you use it? What model, et cetera? It's not on my home screen outside of

the fact that there's a Google search bar there that you can you can kind of use. But like, No, I find that if I'm going to launch it, it's typically the power button shortcut. The overlay, yes. Yeah, I think the overlay is just the fastest way to get to the experience I need anyway. I should actually mention, I allowed my pro subscription to lapse in August when it was one year after the Pixel 9, which was when I got. I, to be honest with you, haven't really been tempted to re-sign up because I was kind of, it was a little bit of an experiment of like, oh, how like i use this pretty casually um it's it's typically a thing that i uh i found a i the most helpful as a partner to bounce uh ideas off of or or just thoughts in general it

doesn't even need to be brainstorming necessarily it needs to be that in my head i have this problem or this this uh potential solution to a thing in my house or whatever right and like i find that that's trying to search for things unless you're finding very specific uh Reddit threads. It's going to be challenging. I think it was, oh God, I record too many podcasts. I think it was on the side load where I talked about having recently diagnosed like furnace issues just by using Gemini rather than using Google search, because Google search, which I had initially tried, just just failed. I also default to fast. It's just always there. I don't really, you know, I don't need anything that I'm doing long, you know, thinking level.

deep research level things for typically. But yeah, I don't know. Like, to me, I have primarily found it to be something, like a, something to just bounce ideas off of. And to that extent, I haven't felt at least these last few months that I needed the pro tier. I was fully ready to jump back, especially with the cloud storage and everything. If I felt like I was missing something, you know, whether that was for, for the job

the three of us do or, uh, you. just in general in my daily life, but Google's free models are really good and feel unrestricted enough that I don't find myself bouncing up against walls very often. No, that's very true. By design, for most people, they are fine in the free offering.

So I, so, yeah, I do the pro model because my thinking is if I'm paying for it, I want the maximum. I want the full benefit. I do, I do, it is longer, it is absolutely, the thing, the thinking that and now it's called pro is absolutely longer and I am staring at my phone for a hot second. So, and maybe that will get me to switch the faster ones. But I've, I don't know, my mind, my mentality is if I'm paying for this, I want, I want to be on the breathing edge, I have to see what the maximum capabilities are,

what's possible. So. That's my thing. Yeah, like Damien, I also have it on my home's, on my dock. I don't really use the overlay as much as I thought I would. I guess it's, when it's in the dock, you're pretty much going to use it. Like going back to the home screen if you're on another app is just nothing. This is actually interesting. And I know this is a little off topic maybe, but I am thinking about it.

I don't think I've changed the four apps in my dock on my home screen in maybe a decade. I mean, it's been very, I mean, maybe the application of choices changed. Like, I switched from Spotify to Apple Music. But, like, it has always been consistently music app, podcast app, browser messaging app. Do you guys change your doc very often?

Because I truly, like, it's such muscle memory to me that, like, I don't know what would get me to change that. Yeah, last year is when I added Gemini. Okay. We talked about in the podcast, didn't we happen? that last year I put Gemini on my dock as almost like an experiment and it stayed there. So that's kind of a really good thing in some respects. But I also was thinking the other day that I might remove the dialer, the phone application,

because I mean, I'm in Europe. I'm in the UK. We use WhatsApp for everything. You can make calls on WhatsApp now. So it's kind of a bit redundant. But then sometimes you kind of want to make a phone call. I don't know how to describe it. It's almost like a legacy thing.

But I definitely think with these new applications and AI is very much a new application, isn't it, in a lot of ways. You can apply it everywhere to your phone. Putting that front and center on your device has almost forced me to find ways to use it, even if it's just like you say, research, or what I'll do is I'll go down a rabbit hole that I would ordinarily go on Wikipedia.

And I obviously ask for links and stuff and if it's things that I already have a surface-level knowledge of, then it kind of is nice to have that like almost like someone doing that deeper research not the true deep research that I would ordinarily do as a journalist but it's a case of like yeah it's just below surface level I don't know there must be a actual term we can use for it is it like maybe mid-surface level research

and I think Gemini is genuinely pretty good at that I found chat GPT can be a bit I don't like the formatting I don't know if you guys are the same if you've ever used it but I don't like the formatting of chat GPT, which is why I've used Gemini more readily. Obviously, the subscription I have monthly anyway for storage and stuff probably ties me in. But yeah, the fact that Google has given away this model to begin with,

it sounds very dry. It feels very corporate, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, in general. But this is a really cool thing for people to have access to. Ordinarily, these are the kind of things that other brands would put behind a paywall. So, yeah, getting effectively the previous, progen and at the rate at which is developing is fantastic.

But I just wanted to, that kind of alludes me to my next point is this is going to allow you to build like prototypes of applications and stuff like that, which I'm guessing if you're a budding developer or someone who doesn't necessarily have the skills to do so, this might be, Google's free tier might actually give you the tool set to maybe start actually getting into development proper, which I think is another cool thing. Well, no, yeah, there's an interesting, it's vibe coding. That's a general industry term. And it is more so in the developer realm of people,

of actual developers being able to build something for their jobs or whatever. But I think what's more interesting is moving Vibe coding to the general sense where people create the apps that they need. And I discussed this. I had an editorial about generative UIs when Gemini, Gemini Free Pro came out. And the idea is that if you can get custom apps

absolutely suited for your needs, I think we did talk about this in the podcast before. But if you can make custom apps, I do think that that is the future of there's an app for that, something super personalized to you. And I think that's a promise that will only get better and better as these models improve.

And you can just only imagine how the Android integration will get better over time to make it more native, like, to pull in different functionality. So I think there's a real, I think that's going to what's going to change most about how we use our Android phones in the, I don't know, like five-year-ish timeline.

Yeah, I'm still of the opinion that Android, and I think it might be a little, it's not controversial, I think Android becomes Gemini and Gemini is Android. I think that's where it all heads and it all becomes this one thing that's fluid and you have an interface that tunes to you and you just ask, maybe not even prompts,

maybe it's visual prompts. I think that could be where it goes personally. Yeah, I do want to clarify that in this hypothetical future, you still have a notes app. You still have your camera app is unchanged. Your dial app is unchanged. Your messaging is probably unchanged. But it's just the specific use cases that you need.

Like I think buying a home, as an example I used the last time, you're buying a home and you ask for an app that guides you to every step, and maybe there's a tab that lets you directly message your reaitor or whatever. So it's just an integrated experience, an integrated group that will highly likely not be useful for anybody else. But for you, it's your one-stop app.

Yeah. This is rolling out right now with a new AI mode. It's a default AI mode model as well, which I know AI mode is in and of itself isn't that bad, actually. It's better than AIO's views. I think Google has a thing. AI overview. really shit the bed, honestly, the perception.

But, okay, it's multifaceted. Like, the initial AI overviews was rough, and that unfortunately covered everybody's opinions about AI and search. The thing that I don't think gets enough credit is Google Search is the biggest AI product in the world, and AI overviews was inherently constrained by how fast it needed to be,

because people's expectations of search are instantaneous. So it was always going to be constrained by that fact that it couldn't, that it was probably too fast. It ended up being too fast for the accuracy and results you're seeing. But with AI mode, AI mode is genuinely good given how it takes the AI chatbot and it grounds it in search results, honestly better than Gemini, the Gemini app. So AI mode, if you haven't used it, really take a look at it. for real-time stuff because the links it gives you to the web and the real-type information

that it allows you to ask is really pretty good and hopefully just replaces AIO views one day. Yeah. So that's Gemini Free Flash. I believe it's available today. Am I right in thinking that update? It's one of the fastest rollouts

we've seen from Google. Instantations. And you'll know it's a huge, like, it's not even really a banner. It's just like a part of the Gemini website right now. advertising that it's it's here yeah that's very quite annoying yeah and that that wasn't even i don't think what we talk about here on pixel aid i don't think that was the biggest news of the day we had a stealth drop very very late i think it was 1 a m uk time maybe 1 30 a m uk time so

technically today for anyone in sorry Thursday for anyone in the uk they google said hey it's just before christmas it's just before the holiday period let's get andrews 16 QPR 3, beta 1, hit the, well, I was going to say hit store shelves. It can't hit store shelves, can I? It hit the beta track. So if you are someone who's previews, you can now go and install that. And Will, I want to ask you straight away, because I'm pretty sure me in Abnuck, we could either be friends or we'll be at loggerheads about this.

The biggest, the biggest change here is they've introduced something from the Canary track. At a glance can finally, finally be disabled if you want at a glance. disabled. Like, tell me what you think about this, because I have some thoughts in a moment. I think this is a great option that probably should have been there the entire time. I won't be touching it, because I like at a glance, but I know there are a lot of people that don't. I'm not trying to play both sides here. I think there's, I genuinely think there's nothing wrong with this being here, but I also think at a glance is one of those, like, things that keeps me on pixel. So to me, I'm like, I don't know why you would, even when it's just the date

in the weather like icon like I'm fine I like that um you know I yeah I if people want a cleaner home screen I think they should let people disable the Google search bar too that's one of my favorite I've I've always liked the bottom uh search bar since it arrived on I think the pixel two um like I I've never had a problem with it but I I think the only issue I have with Google's uh you know build of Android at this moment um God I wish they'd give their skills a name, you know, the pixel experience, if you will, is the lack of customization and personalization and all of these options, you know, the more we get, I think it just strengthens this build is the best you can find on Android. So I'm happy to see it here because it fixes a complaint.

Lots of people have had. It's just not one that I share. Okay. I'm going to both sides it a little bit here as well. I think this is fantastic for the people who want to go custom. I think it's, I mean, yeah, I agree with you. We probably need some more launcher in air quotes options. And I think this could, I think this feels like that second step that Google's been making over the past few years. So they've given us the opportunity, the re-opportunity, as it were, to theme the icons based upon their presets.

This feels like a, hey, we know that you want to make custom skins or whatever you can, customize the skin, so I can't even say it on your phone. You want to tune things at a glance is one of our key selling parts. points along with some other functions. Do you don't want it? Hey, take it away. Yeah. Customize put your own clock there if you want to. I think that's fantastic. I do agree with you. I wonder what they'll do with the search bar. Do you think they'll, it could be a good move. Just give people what they want.

Like Apple's getting more flexible. Yeah. Google needs to get more flexible. I agree with you. It probably should have been available from the start. But the complaints that you see versus I don't hear anyone using a pixel and saying that they hate at a glance. I just think you see it online more than anything. Yeah. But I also wonder as well, I want to ask you this, Abner, do you think this kind of diminishes a little bit of what Google wants to do with the phone that is helpful to you? So, for instance, you get all of that information at a glance. You get your, I don't know, boarding passes, time for your flight, when your bus leaves, the tickets that you have for a gig coming up, the weather conditions, earthquake information, all that kind of stuff like.

Like, how is Google going to spin this? Are they even going to mention it? Or is it just going to be, you can disable this if you want. But now our smartphone, we're taking away one of the key smart features or key smarts selling features. I don't blame people for wanting the option to remove it. It's more so that I think Google is browing it by not making it infinitely more useful. They've had Pixel 2, it came out at the pixel 2.

all this time and it's not if people are complaining it's not useful that's Google's fault and I think they should have been spending this entire time making it so much more useful and I do think they're kind of blowing themselves

so other grants is rooted in assistant stuff it's not it's some assistant stuff from the beginning but it's kind of evolved into its own thing especially as the assistant died It has its own feature set that doesn't require assistant. So that's one. Two is that especially as we're entering the Gemini era,

Gemini should be fully taking advantage of that out of grand space. It should be supercharging it with suggestions and whatnot, especially as the Gemini app gets more useful, especially and it gets more proactive in the future, recommending stuff. So that space at the top of your home screen is a very powerful real estate. on your lock screen, on your always on display. It can surface information at a high level,

so much more efficient than any notification that you can easily ignore or whatever. So I do think by adding the option to remove it, they are shooting themselves in the foot when they eventually use it for Gemini. I think Google should be so much more opinionated about their space. I think they have, they should have the ability to, reserve something on this signature pixel launch,

on the signature experience that is for them. And I think they should have spent all this time making it so much more powerful. And I think this option to remove it is kind of a very weird admission that, did they give up? Did they? The curious thing is the pics,

that other grants is Google's. Okay, I know there's an adagher. Grants widget with the Google app that's available for any Android phone that some people think actually looks nicer. No, no. It looks awful. But the one on the pixel launch is the pixel teams. And I think they're making all these apps, journal, the recorder, whatever.

They should be using it so much more. It should be so much more powerful. They should be adding Gemini stuff to it before the Gemini app team gets to it. So again, I don't blame people for wanting the option to remove it. Google has absolutely not been using it to its full potential all these years. We've talked about the whole food example showing you your pass when you're in the store, recognizing where you are. They're not doing any contextual location stuff, which is annoying for all these years.

So I think Google should have been more opinionated. They should have been using that space so much more. and the option and the fact that they're moving it now to me is like they're waving a flag that it's I'm kind of annoyed actually no I hadn't considered that perspective and you you've swayed me a bit you know scrolling through um the the comments on your article abner someone someone brings up that that Google should be thinking about at a glance more like it's their version of a dynamic island and obviously we have live yeah that's there on Android right and on pixel but I actually do agree that I think it would be so much smarter for

Google to think about this as a place you're going for contextual information for as many apps as possible that they can get support for I would love to have you know my my fantasy football team scores they should have opened it up it should have all the entire time they should have opened it up to apps to access that space and I'm not sure if there's enough pixel users to do that or they should have brought it to the rest of Android but they should have opened it up beyond the limited access they have now with like running apps or whatever. Yes.

Well, in that, I mean, you know, the pixel thing, that brings me to kind of my perspective on that terrible widget you mentioned, which is that it should just, frankly, there should be parity between these things and it should just be like a slightly different version that you can use on other phones. And I get that Google wants this to be a selling point for pixel, but nobody's buying a pixel for at a glance, it should be, those should be the same experience effectively. It can look a little visually different, but, you know, that's, that's about it. But yeah, I, I'm just like, you know, we've seen issues with, with Android, with Google, particularly getting companies to

embrace certain, certain features as fast as Apple can, right? Like, we've seen this with, with these two companies approach to themed icons, like monochrome icons, for example. But I don't know. I, I agree with you that like this this should be more and as much as I like it and I won't turn it off I think I agree with you that perhaps admitting perhaps adding this is an admission that they don't see a future with it which I think is crazy because it is I agree with you that it feels it feels destined for some kind of like like oh we're just like surfacing like we're using like Gemini the LLM to just surface like contextual information you might need that you can swipe through at any moment like the vision's there i don't i don't it is weird to like kind of backwards

walk on it you know it i even just making it movable i think would maybe frustrate less people or whatever but i don't you know i don't i don't know it's um it's it's one of those things where i am now kind of questioning as much as i you know i stand by what i said before which is that i think the pixel launcher needs more customization options to you know maybe this isn't it, right? Like, this should come with Google at the very least, adding more functionality to try to keep you there, you know? It feels like they could have done more with that, akin to Magic Q, basically make it a springboard, yeah. Yeah, springboard for Magic Q. And maybe I think personally, on Pixel, it should integrate with more live activities, like make that the springboard for

live activities. Obviously, Apple has done something similar with, I say similar. They've done their own thing with the dynamic island, which effectively makes a dead space usable on your home screen. If this is a way for Google to just almost develop it, develop at a glance by allowing people to disable it if they want to, and then maybe they'll get the key information that they need from this beta phase and be like, okay. we see that, I mean, I don't know how they would track this,

but they must have some sort of way to track that people are not using the service because they've disabled it or something. Like, I don't know. If they get the key data that they need, then maybe they can start making changes. I agree with you, if you can just move it around. Like, I genuinely think at a glance halfway down the screen would be better for most people.

Like, I think so. What does this mean for at a glance on the lock screen? I just wonder, are we going to get it? If you disable it on your home screen, but you keep aggregates on, it's on your lock screen and aOD. Does this mean, but does this mean days are numbered for that? Like, it is a bit of a slippery slope in some respects, but this has been the one true, apart from the search bar.

Oh, that's not about the search bar. That's never going away from a business standpoint. That's just a pure Google search is the company's name. That's never going away. 100%. This is the only other thing, right? This is the only other thing that has been a constant on pixel

since day one. Like there are very few things that you can get, you can, people associate at a glance with pixel. I mean, I'm laughing because there's not that many. There's maybe tens of millions of people

that know this, but it's growing every year, hopefully. But you kind of, what's the signature element of the pixel now? Like the camera is good, the software is good, the battery's getting better,

Like, I don't know. You need some things that stick, and this feels like one of those things that has stuck. I incorporate into my themes. I don't think I will disable it. I mean, I'm not using the beta track on my pixel temper Excel, but I think for some people, it has, if it keeps people using the phone, I think that is another good thing. Like, maybe Google's moving away from the, in air quotes, enthusiasts people that were first brought onto the scene. and just giving those people an option

I think that's a good thing but yeah I just want to see I hope that this is a catalyst or like an internal look and I wonder I would love to know what it was like behind the scenes who was the person who ultimately said we're going to disable this

this is the thing that we've been known for and our software we are going to be able to disable this in is it March I think this update should officially drop so yeah maybe there'll be some twists and turns afterwards or in the

interim. Maybe we'll see some more integrations. It's still beta, technically. But again, to go back to the search bar, it's, that is how I want, how I do most of my searching on Android. I'm the opposite. I don't go to use it at all. I don't think I've ever used to. I use it so much that when I'm, when I'm on non-pixel devices, I will add a Google search bar to the bottom of my home screen. Yeah. Because I just, it's muscle, it's so much muscle memory for me.

it's to me it's incredibly convenient it's what I'm doing like you know I feel like 50% like if I pick up my phone there's a one and two chance that the thing I'm doing is a Google search so it's really nice to just have it right there yeah it's it's I I get why people want to have it off their phone but I agree with you Abner it's free advertising for Google search they'll never add that option they'll never know okay I will I will commit now for the next month when I would ordinarily go to Chrome and search

So you just open the new Chrome, new tab or whatever? Yeah. Yeah, I probably have about 175 tabs on my phone. Yeah, it's a way to go over 100 and it gets a little smiley face. That's basically, that is me 99% of the time. To me, that's like using the Google apps to wait to not have open tabs

and I just like, no, I just want one thing. Yeah, okay. I will commit now then for the next three to four weeks to just using that search. I think muscle memory will take me to Chrome, but I will try and darn this to do it, even maybe forgoing Gemini a little bit and use the I.mode instead. But yeah, these signature things, you don't have them on phones very often nowadays. We've seen like a big kind of merging of ideas from, probably from the iOS

side, to be quite honest with you. We've lamented some of these updates recently that are integrating concepts from iOS. Google has this one thing. that really does differentiate them. And it doesn't, maybe we're overblowing out a glance here because it is just time and time and date, right? Time, date, weather and a few calendar updates for most people. The flashlight thing is generally useful when it's off on your lock screen.

Like landing and like knowing where your luggage is is pretty useful. I've never seen the wide chair thing, but I guess there's a live activity for that now. Yeah. I've had it for boarding gates and stuff like I think it is pretty good. I think that those things are genuinely useful because it is, you do, you forget them or you, it's not that you forget them, it's at the forefront of your mind and you, um, you get through TSA or whatever, the security checkpoint. You're like, oh, you know what? My brain, it's four in the morning and my brain is not functioning. I have already forgotten my gate. And yeah, it's nice to have it right there. Yeah. Um, I guess we'll see. I, I just, I, if you, like you guys have said, if they can integrate some Gemini in there properly, I think that's probably what they do. I, I'm going to, okay, hand on. I'm going to say I think that's what they're doing.

I think they're going to put some magic Q-esque slash Gemini-esque powers in there and this is a way for them to kickstart the development of it because like you say, what have we had? We had, I think, Android 11 era was it? We had Nest camera updates in there, which again, I love this because sometimes I miss them and I get the little video feed there which is in a little tiny little square, slightly bigger than an app icon. let's let's let's let's let's let's let's go on a positive note on at a glance and say that I think we're going to get some more features from Gemini but um as for an update this this is this is potentially the the beginning of this new era for Google right they confirmed with the pixel feature drop in December or the pixel drop whatever they call it I think the naming name scheme is pretty terrible um that this is the end of an era as it were for these big updates when things are

ready, they're going to be done, right? Do you think, do you think that they, do you think this could, could this even supersede the beta? Do they think this should come live in like two months time or a month's time when they're ready? No, I think that, yeah, so what they're talking about is with QPR 2, in 2025, they had two major, Google, in Google's minds, they had two major Android releases, the initial Android 16 release and QPR 2. It's a lot of, it's, it's It's kind of weird for people to know because they know we have quarterly updates and those are pretty significant. But to Google, they're using the major release of 16 and the minor release of QPR 2 as an

opportunity to add more platform level features twice a year. So I assume that continues, that they're going to keep doing that. for them it's a way to get features out much faster. So that does probably stick to a quarterly thing from just the how technical and how big Android is from an infrastructure standpoint. But yeah, I do think they do want to get more platformable features out there much sooner. Yeah, I mean, my take is that like you say, I think when Google's ready, they're ready. I think the Canary, to me, the Canary channel seems like, okay, we are now having this Chrome-like approach. We're just going to throw, I mean, excuse my bluntness here, we're going to throw shit at the

wall and see if it works. Like, if it works, it goes live within two months. I don't even think they wait for these, these QPRs as often personally, but because I think the November, the November Android update slash mini pixel drop felt like that. It felt like we're ready for this. We don't care if and obviously that alignment of pixel team, Android team is just supercharged everything. I think that's probably what it is. I mean, Apple does this with their 0.1 releases. I think to me this seems like a return to a 0.1 style release for Android going forward. But hey, I've been proven wrong before multiple times, hundreds of times on this podcast. So don't take my word for it. That's just my theory. And it's just a game theory, as I say. As for other

We had a little shock 2nd December patch to round out the end of this month ahead of the holiday period. I'm pleased about this. I think it's good to see that Google's making these changes ahead of the holiday period. If people are going to pick up these devices, they're not going to be running buggy updates or have problems with OTAs. Just run me through some of the fixes that are supposedly on this one, Ben Abner. So it is a high-level fix is a touch. issue for the Pixel 10 series, touch failures. I don't think I've noticed that. The other issue is battery drain if you've had those issues. And the third issue was if you're updating from

Android 14 to 16, there's no data loss or something like that. I think that was a smaller aspect. It's really rare. Imagine going from 14 to 16. That would be a real culture shock, guess. Like you would be going from what is essentially Android 12.5 or something to Maternity Expressive. But hey, if you are one of those people

out there listening, then fair play to you. You've hung on a long time. I have had, I must admit, I have had both of those issues. A little bit of battery drain. Yeah, I've had battery drain,

but I don't know if that's due to having a second e-sim. I added an e-sim recently. So I have an e-sim and a physical sim and touch unresponsiveness, like the iPhone, typing, Every second button press, I was pressing the wrong button.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know if that's, that could be a fat thumbs thing. That could be my fault. But yeah, sometimes I would use the touch the gesture bar to open Circle to search. And it would just take me back to the home screen as well. So, you know, I've had a couple, like, why did Circle the Search just to activate moments in the last couple of weeks that I'm like, I'm like, I don't think I, maybe I've noticed this without even realizing it. But maybe maybe that's something. thing that that has affected my phone without realizing it. Yeah, I think it might be, I thought it was

my screen protector. So I just threw another one on there and it still was there. I was like, it's not the screen protector. It's the software issue. But I'm glad to see Google's resolve with that pretty quickly. I'm hoping that anyone out there who had the previous patch has had Wi-Fi issues resolved. I had lots of those where it would just suddenly not connect to my home network and ask me to put the password in again. That seems to be fixed. Yeah, that seems to be fixed for me. I've seen a few complaints about online when we talked at the bulletin at the start of the month, but hopefully that might be a secret fix that they've not mentioned. Connectivity being the most important thing with a smart device.

So, guys, we're not finished yet. I want to ask you some secret questions. So this is all the updates. It's the end of the year. We're kind of coming to that point in time where everything's winding down. Like, in terms of Google's year, I want to give you a bit of insight. behind the scenes. Where do we think Google comes?

Where do we think Google has really landed this year? Do we think, do we think 2026 is going to be another? I think they've had a stellar year, to be quite honest with you, across the board. I think 2026 could be another strong year, probably driven by Gemini, but I'm interested to hear what you guys think. Yeah, I would agree. It was a strong year for Google. And I would say I'd probably rate 20, especially 2033 and then to,

lesser extent, 2024, as mixed years for Google, ups and downs, I would say. So I don't have a specific low point coming to mind right now for Google in 2025, outside of maybe, you know, relatively losing, like basically losing the epic lawsuit. But even then, you know, a lot of the, you know, government-based outcomes have been not quite as, as, as, as we had maybe expected for for Google you know there's certainly I don't expect to see them broken up anytime soon I would say so bullet dodged there yeah I I I don't know I think it was like a decent to good year for Google and I expect to see them carry that momentum into 2026 but obviously it's it's always difficult to to predict where where the industry is going especially

these days I feel like you know I mean I mean did you guys think a week ago we'd be talking about Gemini 3 Flash. Like, I wasn't expecting it immediately as quickly as we got it after Pro. But maybe I don't know the calendar well enough. But, yeah, a good year. A B at least, probably a B plus. Yeah. So I think I'm going to take this question more forward facing.

26. I had past few, before the start of this month, my expectations of 26 were more of same but the fact that next year we are getting AR glasses in real that that is phenomenal that is like the highlight as a thing I've been waiting for for 10 plus years and so I think it's going to be very exciting to be for us and for people to be able to cover it from the ground up this new technological form factor being put into the mainstream with the rumors that Apple falls a year later, it is going to be very exciting to cover something from the ground up to see the societal implications

good and bad of this new technology. I think when we all started this, the smartphone was in full swing and wearables were kind of in full swing, but wearables didn't end up being as disruptive. as what I think glasses are going to be for everything. So I am just so excited looking ahead that it's going to be a whole new thing, brave new world. I think my takeaway from this year has been that Google has finally lent into their own strengths more than ever before, i.e., they've trusted their own design.

They've stayed strong with their pixel lineup. It's the first time. It feels the most confident, even though I think it wasn't the biggest shakeup of the pixel lineup that we've seen in terms of smartphone and hardware. They're starting to see gains, although minuscule compared to a lot of the other players in the space.

The AR glasses, like you say, Abner, they could be a complete industry disruptor. It's that realization of something that was hinted at with Google Glass. I think Gemini is, I personally think it's poised to be the AI platform. And I think that's, we could get into the machinations of that, but that's just my opinion right now.

There are so many things that Google has going for them that I think 18 months ago when we started pixelated didn't seem clear. And now I feel like Google has a strong vision. And personally, I think Android is going to be at the forefront of that. And I hope that it is. I think Canary is the starting, the building blocks for Android developing a rate that we haven't seen for since probably pre Android 5. And I'm just excited to

see what they do with this. If they get this Gemini integration into Android, I think we kind of think might happen. Yeah, I think they get this in and we can have truly custom experiences. Yeah, I do have one disappointment this year. It's that I thought we'll be controlling our phones with Gemini of physical control that instead of tapping and touching and whatever would be happening this year, especially since we saw it, I thought we'd have an update on that in November by December. But no, that's still in the works. Yeah. I mean, I would love to see Google bring back solely. Let's get solely back. 2026, reinvigoration, solely on a pixel, get rid of the thermometer. we don't want that.

Let's get less control with our voices and hands-free gestures. But yeah, I just want to say thank you guys for joining. It's been a fantastic year. It's been great to have you joined the podcast as well, Will. Oh, yeah. Guys, it's so much fun. The past six months or so, I cannot believe it's been half a year already. It feels like I just, it genuinely feels both like I've been here for longer than that

and that I just jumped in, which is, which is two very different emotions. But yeah, man, it's been. great podcasting with you guys. We've had some really fun conversations. I'm really looking forward to where we go in 2026. Of course. And on that, there will be guys, they will be a special episode out hopefully next week in time for the holidays. I'm not going to spoil it, but we are going to be discussing with the gang about the gang at 95 Google, about everything that we think product-wise has done well, done badly and done indifferently over the course of 2025. So stick around for that. Huge episode for us.

Do you think this 45-ish minute episode was too short? I have great news for you. We've doubled it. We doubled it and more. There is a lot of laughs as well. So stay tuned for that. Wednesday morning for that one. Christmas Eve morning.

That'll be out. Yes. So you'll have a little gift from Santa Will. Yeah, I just want to say thanks again for joining us, guys. I've really, really appreciated your time over the course of the year. And we will be back again properly in just a few weeks' time. CS. But yeah, thanks for joining us, guys, and we'll speak to you soon. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9-to-5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show,

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