Pixelated - Haven't I Seen This Pixel Before?

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Welcome to episode 88 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner, Will, and Ben talk all about the Pixel 10a, a device where the 'a' seems to stand for 'again.' Without much in the way of new features, the trio dive into all of the nuances that make the Pixel 10a stand out from its predecessor, before asking the obvious: is it time for smartphone makers to take longer generational breaks? Plus: We know when Google I/O is happening, and we talk all through how we'll be controlling our Android-powered glasses. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription by signing up for Proton Unlimited using this link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring this week's episode. Timecodes 00:00 – Intro 01:35 - Pixel 10a announced 17:30 - Should smartphones start seeing longer release cycles? 26:50 - How you'll control Android XR glasses 39:55 - Google I/O and wrap-up Hosts Abner Li Ben Schoon Will Sattelberg Read more Pixel 10a hands-on: Peak design, peaked specs Pixel 10a gets boosted trade-in values for iPhones, Pixel 4a and Pixel 6a, Galaxy Where to pre-order Pixel 10a: $100 gift cards, Pixel Buds 2a, free at carriers, more Here’s how you’ll control and navigate Android XR glasses Google I/O 2026 set for May 19-20 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. And for even more Android discussion, dive into the official 9to5Google forums!

Switching your apps and services is about as much fun as switching banks, especially when you don't have any issues with your current providers to begin with. But Proton is worth switching for. With a privacy-first ecosystem of services available on practically every platform, Proton offers email, calendar, file storage, VPN, password management, and document editing. Built with class-leading end-to-end encryption, Proton services are fast, intuitive, and secure. And if you're worried about switching, Proton has export tools that bring over your emails, files, and passwords in just a few clicks. For Pixelated listeners, Proton is offering 30% off an annual subscription to Proton Unlimited. So check out the links in the show notes to learn more. Welcome to Pixelated Episode 89.

I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. This week, the Pixel 10A has finally launched, and Abner Ben and I managed to squeeze 25 minutes of conversation out of what might, at least on the surface, be one of the most boring year-over-year upgrades we've seen in a minute. Is there more than meets the eye with this phone, or is this yet another sign that smartphones are closer to appliances than we might think? We also discuss the future of controlling Android-powered smart glasses and some of the privacy concerns that might surround that fledgling industry. It's a very fun discussion, and it all starts right now.

So, Abner, Ben, we are here. It is officially Pixel 10A launch day as we are recording this. And Abner, you got a hands-on with the device. We still have two weeks to go before it's actually on store shelves. It's up for pre-order right now. Tell me a little bit about the Pixel 10A. Is it the 9A redux we all thought it was going to be? Or is it secretly a little bit more?

Tell me about it. No, the profile, the feel, it's identical. There's no different thing. I guess my one curiosity going in was to see how they would handle how exactly the flat camera worked. So it's not the plastic back and the camera glass. They're not flush. It's not melded into one surface. Instead, the camera is actually one layer underneath the plastic. And I guess that's probably for the better. So it's, it's the, if you, when you put it down on the surface, the grass is not touching. It's not really touching the material underneath.

So there's a slight, it's one way underneath is how I describe it. But yeah, that's a difference. That is literally the difference. It is, there's zero wiggle. It looks nice. It looks flush. There's some kind of like, there's definitely side by side when you're looking at the 9A versus a There's some optical illusion almost with how it's flat, how there's no bump.

We're just so attuned to there being a bump. It looks kind of weird. But yeah, it is 9A chassis with this key change, which is genuinely an engineering feat. I believe Google when they say that. So they took the time to do it and it's absolutely worth it. Yeah, it's, it's an interesting little tweak that both, you know, I'm excited to like put this thing on a desk, right? Like I think that's the biggest thing. We've all gotten so used to most actually the pixel mind, you know, any pics, any tensor powered mainline pixel is kind of the exception. But largely speaking, we've gotten so used to like putting a phone on a table.

I mean, Ben, you're a fold seven carrier. So I know you can you can attest to this. But it's, it's the rattle has become so commonplace. And I, I for one, honestly a little bit excited that like, there is a phone out here that is both not going to rattle on a table and, and doesn't have any kind of camera bump, not even a protective ring. I think it's, it's weirdly throwbacky, but it's, it's exciting in a way. I mean, you know, Abner, you had these photos from your hands on of, of, uh, the, the phone being pulled out of a pocket.

And I was like, yeah, that's exactly what I've been kind of waiting for. I'm kind of curious if it, like last year the camera bar aided with knowing the direction of the phone. So I'm kind of curious if like that, well, you can feel the indent of the camera grass. Yeah. Maybe that's enough of an identifier when you're pouring in and out of your pocket. But otherwise, it's, I don't know, it's a small thing. It's absolutely a small thing. But it's nice.

It's different. Ben, what do you think of the pixel 10A? I think that I ordered one only because of that berry red color. Okay, let's talk about the colors that I think that's as good of a segue as we'll probably find. I think, you know, obsidian standard, the lavender is not too far away from what we had last year. Yeah, it's, I really thought that the berry would be its marquee shade because the, that's the new one. But no, they're sticking with this lavender color.

I mean, Abner, you saw it in person. Did it look a lot different than last year's? So it's a bit bright. It's absolutely a bit brighter, but I wouldn't, if you didn't, if you weren't looking at them side by side, it's easily confused. And to bury. So personally, I was deciding between lavender and berry too. So compared to last year, it's not pink in any way.

So that's, that's a change. my concern is it's a bit too flashy. It's like you don't see that color anywhere on phones. And I feel like especially uncased when you take it out of your pocket. I feel like it's like it draws people's attention. That is the kind of red, orange it is. It reminds me of like international orange. It's that safety orange color.

It's that's how distinct it is to me. it's yeah my personal concern is that it's a bit too flashy and that's why i didn't go with it but i think that it is compared to pictures it's probably a bit more muted than you'd expect but it's from just like my personal tolerances it's probably a bit too flashy but i think for other people it could be fine it is a proper reddish orange did they uh have a nest cam for you to compare it to No, they did not. See, I still, if it matches the Nescam, I'm thrilled.

Because I was looking at that, the mine again today. And I just love that color so much. I'm excited about this color. This is the one that is drawing me in only because, you know, if I'm constantly going to beg for more saturated poppy colors, then I feel like I need to put my money where my mouth is and support it. But I do see what you're saying, Abner. It is, it's the, it's the, it's the red sports.

car problem of like, oh, you're going to get more speeding tickets with that red sports car versus like a black sports car. It's it's it's the same thing with like catching the eyes of somebody that like might want to steal your phone or something like I totally can see why you would want to you know keep as little attention as possible and obviously a case is going to downplay this a bit. Yeah, most people. You lose the magic of the of the color. How does the how does the fog look? Because that's that's the other one that's kind of of a new color. And all of the renders that Google published and what we saw leaks prior to that, it looked almost green, like just a touch of green. Yeah. It's a touch, it's absolutely a touch of green. It's depending on the light thing, you could probably confuse it as just plain white. So it's a subtle. It's more interesting than just a pearl or what Google's usual parrot,

but it's still, it's not as green as if you like green stuff, it's not too green. It's even more subtle than the mint pixel 8 is what you're telling me. Oh, absolutely. No, yeah. I love if it were mint. But yeah, the look aside, these phones, I think the key difference, and it's something will determine over the review, especially, and over the longevity is I think the biggest hardware change is,

a grilla glass seven eye. I think in terms of keeping this phone for years, that is probably the big upgrade that the A-series find and got. Yeah, that's a thing that I think might be a little bit difficult to, like, sell certain consumers on, right? Like, like, it's difficult to be like,

oh, this piece of glass covering your phone is more exciting than the last piece of glass. But Gorilla Glass 3 is, which was on, what was on previous A-series devices. kept it so long. It's ancient. It's I have to, without looking it up, I has to be over a decade old. Like it is, it is a very old glass technology that is, um, outdated.

Like it like for lack of a better term. I mean, if you pick up any phone with, go pick up an A series device, it just feels so much cheaper than any of the glass you find on practically any other flagship right now. And seven I is kind of the evolution of three. that's kind of what Corning made Gorilla Glass 7i2B is a replacement for three. And I'm happy to see that improved scratch and drop, especially scratch resistance because, you know, I know I didn't even use the pixel 9A for that long. And I was picking up plenty of scratches on that thing, just from regular use. Ben, I have to go to you on this one because you are, when I think of

Chi 2, when I think of pixel snap, I think of you. How, how, how, how, how, are you disappointed that it doesn't have pixel snap? Are you surprised? Does it maybe not matter? What do you think? I'm not surprised. It inherently makes sense not to, you know, throw a nice to have flagship to your feature in a mid-range budget phone.

But it would have been nice. It also would have been nice just from the aspect of there's really not that much else new as we've been talking about. It would have been great to have, you know, this action. game-changing, you know, literally change the way you use your phone feature in there. Yeah. From my longevity standpoint, it does concern me that they didn't include it. If you're having it for seven years and, well, maximum of seven, probably a bit shorter

than that. But the fact that you're not getting this, again, this changing, it changes how you use your phone, that you're not getting it for a few more years. That's a bummer. It is, that being said, if you haven't been using the magnets, you're probably, you won't feel it as much. But I guess in our special case of us where we go back and forth between phones, that's the way you feel it. It's not a thing you want to lose. And I do plan on using the 10A until the next phone comes out.

But I think I will feel that loss. It's tough to go back, I think. And you can obviously add that with a case, but I think part of the fun of the 10A and really the 9A before it is using it without a case because it's this plastic. But I think really nice feeling shell that feels protected kind of on its own.

You know, you have this improved class now. You have, you know, as we said, zero camera ring. So the whole thing is flat. I feel like this is more than anything else in the market, a phone designed to be used without a case, which I think makes the missing pixel snap feel that much harder to, you know, it's a harder pill to swallow. It's also a shame just in the context of the rest of the market because, you know, Apple went without MagSafe in the 16E last year. But now the 17A or 17E, which is supposedly going to have MagSafe magnets this time, despite having no. price hike. Right, which was a massive shortcoming on last year's phone. That was a device I

reviewed back when I worked at Android Police and I found the entire thing to be not a particularly compelling package because it was one that was built with Apple intelligence specifically in mind. So every decision about that device was made for a suite of features that was that ended up being underbaked and half finished. Right. And so they had centered the whole thing around using a premium chip set and then taken away features that they thought people wouldn't care about. I would argue it's the opposite. I don't think Google is in quite the same boat here.

But it is telling that, you know, something like PixelSnap that I think is a is just, it's bound to be a fan favorite. It's fun. It's a massive differentiator for Google at the moment. It's really just Apple, right? And like we don't even expect Samsung to adopt this on the S26 anymore. that's coming up soon. So I think it's just, it's frustrating to see such a little change on this model.

And then, you know, a handful of the new features they're talking about are just kind of AI tools that are trickling down from the pixel 10. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. But it does feel much more underwhelming than I think magnetic accessory support would feel. Yeah. And that brings us the tensor G4 of all of it. I think they can get away with this once in terms of the lineup, in terms of their roadmaps.

I'm fundamentally. I don't think on-device AI features are comparing enough to, if you don't have it, it's like you don't buy the phone. We're just not there yet. And I do feel like Google is moving towards crowd-based, even more to replicate the on-device AI features with their private crowd, something, something.

So, yeah, so the TensorFlow, G4, they can get away with this once, especially if you probably factor in TensorFlow G5, being expensive as their first TSM chip, and they'll get more experience with the G6, or I don't know, maybe they, I assume it's G6 next day, I assume the G5 was just not designed to be,

affordable A-series level stuff. So it's fine this year. But again, and the idea of if you want to buy a phone, even if it's a mid-range, if you want the best possible mid-ranger at the time of purchase, and especially if you're keeping it for a long while, this slightly puts in the calm of maybe wait one more year

if your phone can still hold it out or buy a cheaper discounted pixel 10 or whatever, 9. It's interesting, though, because it does feel a little bit like a gamble. Obviously, we've talked a lot about the ongoing RAM shortage and other component storage as well. It's trickier than ever to predict what the Pixel A series or really any, especially budget phone,

pricing will look like in 2020. which does put a little bit more pressure than usual on this device to be like, well, you don't know. Like the pixel 11A could be $650 because it has to have eight gigabytes of RAM and RAM's really expensive and hard to, like I'm not saying that's true. I'm just saying more than ever, huge question mark over the future of pricing of lots of devices every smartphone practically and every analyst is saying it's going to hit cheaper devices harder. And so I don't, I don't know. Like I do wonder a little bit if like, you know, in the same way that I was saying, if you're, you know, if you're interested in a phone,

picking up the pixel 9A on sale is not a bad idea. Similarly, I think if, if you're kind of set on a future A series device, even though this is shipping with an older processor, then maybe we would want it to, it's not an awful idea to pick this up and then have a reliable device for, you know, three, four, five plus years. Yeah. I think the hypothetical we should be playing is, what if Google didn't release an A-series phone this year? What would that conversation be? What would there be, would some people make the argument

that it's Google a patenting pixel or whatever crazy argument? So, okay, let's imagine that. We live in the world where there is no A-series phone this year. the 9a they would probably now they'd probably keep the 9A at the price it is and just rely on discounts to bring it down I think so

they never officially drop it they would just it would just always be on sale at $400 or whatever yeah yeah yeah it's again I think especially in the context of the RAM stuff I think they also get a pass it's almost understandable if they didn't read something.

But yeah, what do we think about what that world would look like? Someone would definitely make the argument that pixels is dying because that's inevitable. I personally would kind of like to see a year go by where the Pixel A series is not updated.

Because I don't feel like that's, I don't feel like budget phones need to be updated at the same cadence. I think having a year in between, makes for a more meaningful upgrade. And these are phones that people are not upgrading even every two years anyway. I think people are keeping a Pixel A series phone for at least, at least two years. Yeah, and every other year upgrade works a lot because even just from experience, like my mom had a

pixel 6A. She loved it. I didn't upgrade her until the Pixel 9A. And it was mainly because of the battery stuff. Yeah. it's it's interesting that you know the the entire industry kind of followed the lead of Apple and Samsung on just doing numbers and their phones right like like you know you go back to the the early to mid 2010s and you have your HTC ones which I know I'd M7 and M8 but that's still

it was the HTC1 and galaxy Nexus or whatever right like like eventually we got to this point where everything has a number and we're just going to do numbers but that has kind of sunk the industry a little bit here where it's like, well, okay, if Google, from a marketing perspective were to skip a year, then you just have this like what looks like a dated number kind of sitting on store shelves as opposed to the pixel 11 that will be next to it, you know, in August or September. I can see why these companies feel the need to be like, we got to, we got to keep these numbers growing, especially because our competitors are, you know, going up to the iPhone 17, 18, like whatever, right? Like, the Galaxy S-20.

27, 28. I see it, but it's, and even from a budget perspective, you know, Samsung's A series, the iPhone 17E, those numbers are going up. I would like the entire industry to kind of like do a way. And there's no easy solution, right? Because we've seen Motorola do this with years. They kind of are the outlier. They love to do a year. And that it's in itself can get confusing, or at least annoying to talk about with models. But I think it's smarter for consumers and manufacturers to start thinking about, like, we don't have anything new to bring to the table. Let's not bring anything new to the table.

Yeah. So I think the broader discussion here is the life cycles longer than 12 months, which Ben recently wrote about. And I think I also did it a few years back. But it's basically, okay, maybe it's not 24. maybe we don't wait two years, but 18 months seems like a good compromise. I know it makes it weird in terms of launching the phone, financials, impacts when it hits, when the bump hits, et cetera, et cetera.

I know that makes it weird, but I think, and people's expectations, but people buy phones when they need phones. So I think that kind of operates that argument. But I think 18 months, especially in the context of, components getting higher. I think there's something there. And I would love if somebody took the first step in showing that that might work,

whether it be somebody big like Samsung or Google. It was interesting because we saw Samsung play around with this a little bit over the last few years with their galaxy tablets. It was like, I think the tab S6 to the seven and then seven to eight, eight to nine. I think we're all had 18 months roughly gaps, give or take a month, but it was on average about 18 months.

And like that's iPads are there too. Yeah, the iPads are there too. But then I wonder if it was kind of that like holiday schedule or just when they want, you know, their specific tablet financials to bump up that Samsung over the S10 and S11 have kind of gone back to like every year, even though they don't have much new, right? To the point where they're skipping, they've skipped a model each time, whether it's the plus or the small one. They've picked a model to bypass.

while making the ultra both times. So, like, I don't know if maybe that was a brief experiment to see how it would work and they opted against it or what, but, like, and obviously it would be different if they did it with phones. But I agree. I think 18 months is a healthy way to do it that I don't even think most consumers would notice. Like, maybe they would notice Apple if Apple started doing it because Apple demands a lot more attention

from the general public than I think Google or Samsung does. but I don't know if it would matter in the long term and I think it would be good for everybody. Yeah, I fully agree. Yeah, it's these cycles. It's just, I don't know, 18 months, it's the idea like if you give it six, you give the development timeline six more months,

what can you do in that time? And it's just the idea of, I don't know, I think 18 months would be so, it'd be refreshing in a way. And I guess, I don't think two, I think two years is slightly too long, but 18 months just feels light

in terms of seeing the latest and greatest. And I don't know, just really allowing things to mature a bit and see, I guess in the context of pixel, I want what does six more months give Google in terms of freshing out bugs and whatnot? The main name is, issue I see is one, you know, there's the bottom line, but the other one is, uh, honestly,

a lot of this comes down to carriers. True. They want a new phone on us on the same schedule. Well, that, that's, that is part of the problem and not one that we were, we were considering. But yeah, I mean, I mean, that's true. Um, the, especially in the U.S., the carrier, uh, strong arming is kind of make or break for a lot of these companies. I mean, that's, that's part of why you see a brand like one plus struggling a little bit to get a foot a better foothold in the u.s because they no longer have carrier partnerships um and you can feel that and they're always uh always morphing although they're shortening it but they're constantly just putting up new hardware at a at a at a less than 12 month uh pace um i i wonder if you could kind of work around that by doing

something like mid cycle color refreshes think about like car manufacturers just adding a couple new colors to the lineup or can can maybe like help keep that last six months going without without carriers being too impatient. But yeah, I mean, I agree with you, Ben. That's, that is a part I hadn't considered. It does make things a lot more complicated. On the pixel 10A, we did get a couple of those new AI features, as I mentioned. We got auto best take. We got camera coach. The, the processor might be the same, but it now supports satellite because the the modem got a slight upgrade up to the one that was in the pixel 10. Does any of this move the needle for you guys?

Or does this just feel kind of like table stakes? It shows table stakes. It shows that when they could upgrade it, they made the upgrades. So that's nice. Yeah. But yeah, like the battery goes from 27 watt wire charging to 30 watt. Wireless is 7.5 to 10 watts. They now tell, it's the same cell, but they now tell 30 hours.

I assume that's mostly software. But yeah, it's nice upgrades, but it's, if you are buying this phone, it is likely for the design if you're an enthusiast. And for everybody else, it's just that time to make your upgrade. I agree. I agree. It's, it's, I think we said this last week when we were speculating or maybe two weeks ago, but like, I have no doubt this is going to be a good phone when I get my hands on it. It's just difficult to see the full vision because this does really feel like, I don't even remember who I saw made the joke, but I saw someone make the joke Pixel 9B and I thought it was funny. You know, it's, it is, it is a successor model and, and, you know, that can be a little, a little boring to talk about. But at the same time, like, there's enough here that you can maybe squit and see at the very least that it's it's not

going to be like a bad choice if you're if you're upgrading this year okay so so kind of moving off the pixel 10a because i think i think we've said everything we there is to say about that phone um and obviously review coming in the in the next few weeks um the the other thing and i know abner you are actually both of you are so excited about this but but this is kind of the the first big year of Android X-R glasses. They're coming this year. Avner, you had a piece this week that kind of talked through

how we will control and navigate glasses. Can you talk a little bit about what we learned? So at a high level, so in December, Google started directing developers build apps, the wider developer audience

versus just the people who they partnered with on day one experiences to start building. And from there, we can learn about we haven't seen the final hardware yet but we can we can learn about the commonalities to expect so so there's a touchpad there is a there that is how you will primarily navigate one one finger swipe two finger swipe is for all adjusting volume uh there is a camera button

that will most likely be on the top edge of the stem and on the bottom is a display button for grasses with displays. That lets you turn on and off the displays. It's a sleep wake. So basically when you can use it, display grasses, you can use them completely audio only. So that's why it's important for developers to build with audio in mind.

Every single display AI grasses, which is the official name. will be audio, can be used audio only too. So it's more efficient, it's, et cetera, et cetera. But yeah, so those are the primary hardware controls you're dealing with. I'm sure Gemini is going to be a very big part of this. But for those that want to control it silently, yeah, that is the primary hardware controls that all these devices have.

And the other thing is an on-off button or switch. So those are the core components. So a little bit on the software side, the thing I find so amusing is that there's a back gesture. And it's basically the Android's back button in-app back gesture. Yeah, it takes you. It's so funny to think about that that's a thing that's going to be carried over on grasses.

I guess it's inevitable. yeah you'll be able to do in that back that's that's honestly really funny it cements the back gesture or button you know whatever form it had taken as like the most important aspect of android like that's no matter what devices android is on it's got to have a back button it doesn't matter what form factor i love that i think it's great because i do i love the back button you know if you're if you're ever picking up an iphone it's like awful to not have in my opinion I actually did not know that every app had to be built to be audio only, but I think that's really smart. Not necessarily because I'll be using apps in this situation, but if I were to be wearing smart glasses with a display, I hadn't even considered something like going to the movies and how disruptive that would be.

Because obviously I wear I wear glasses. So if I pick up smart glasses, they have to be prescription. I assume I'm not bringing a second pair to the movies. So they need to be able to like, you know, whatever heads up notifications I have need to, like, like go away while I'm sitting in this audience for two and a half hours or whatever. I hadn't even considered that I would need that, but it's good to know that it will be one button. That's honestly an interesting etiquette thing.

Like I kind of feel like I would bring my non-smart glasses at least for the first few months just to see like if people ask you to like, can you please not wear that? Probably like in a restaurant or something. I could show them me turning it off and maybe that's enough of them like especially if you say these are, oh, these are prescription. Maybe that's the etiquette there.

But I also, to like be super conscientious, I'd probably bring my physical grass, my regular grasses too. I, that makes sense because also it's like, and I'm not saying that the quality of this recording is going to be something you want to watch. But there is the idea of like, oh, like when, when, you know, the battery

life is there if it's not at launch. Like, I could just record this movie that I'm watching with the camera. Like, again, not saying it's a good quality option, but obviously movie theaters and studios specifically take that stuff really, really seriously. And I hadn't even considered that. Like hospitals, too, if you're going to like, yeah, privacy situation. 100%. Yeah, I would just take it off. But yeah, that's an interesting etiquette thing that you have to consider going into that future. But I, I, I guess at my high level, each pair of glasses,

they will have two LEDs. One is user-facing that you will be able to see while you're wearing, and the other is the outward one for privacy for people knowing what you're doing. But again, like, I think, I've said this before, but I think I'd say that people have cameras,

people are pointing their phone cameras all the time. I don't think that the nature of like smart glasses on people's face changes that drastically. What do you think, Ben? I know you're bullish on smart glasses as well. Do you see any kind of like public concerns here? Do you like if you, you don't wear glasses. So I guess in the worst case scenario,

you would just have to take them off. But like, do you see that future coming? Or do you think, do you think people will even know to notice before they're too commonplace? Yeah, personally, I've never been one to be concerned about, you know, the idea of smart glasses with the camera. Personally, I find it quite useful. I actually wore the meta ray bands quite a bit when I would go out and, you know, play disc golf events or whatever, just because it actually helped me remember to take pictures, which I'm terrible at in situations.

And I think the LED is more than sufficient, especially because, you know, it's, I think that's a relatively intuitive thing. I don't think anyone is looking at you and seeing your glasses with an LED and being like, hmm, I wonder what that means. It's like they, I think everyone kind of understands. It means the camera's on. Same way like a red light on a old camcorderment. It was recording. Absolutely.

I do wonder if some of the concerns around, around cameras and privacy aren't even so much is someone taking a photo of me right now, but, but even just like there's been a lot of noise in the news about like surveillance. and state systems and everything like that. And specifically on smart glasses, we saw over the weekend that there was a report from the New York Times

that meta specifically is using a, and I'm quoting, dynamic political environment to launch their own facial recognition system on its smart glasses, which is concerned. Like, I think people are right to be concerned about that, especially when the leak is like, we're doing this right now while people are distracted. So I do understand where some of that comes from.

And my hope would be, that Google doesn't follow down whatever road meta wants to go down. At the moment, Google's AI principles say they would not do facial recognition, I believe. That's what the current one says. 100%. My hope is that Google is able to push back enough on this sort of thing to be, in order to basically cement that like, well, that's like whatever they're doing over there, we are privacy focused. Like, you know, if Apple makes classes, I assume they would be privacy focused.

Hopefully that's not the future, right? But I can see what people would be concerned about it. So I bring it up not so much for us to talk about it, but maybe as a concern that would be in people's heads and hopefully something that Google continues to dodge down the road. Yeah, and I think Google inherently is going to fare a little bit better in that case just because the alternative is meta. Exactly.

And like Google, people have feelings about Google and privacy and how the data is handled. And it's somewhat understandable. But I think universally Google is more trusted than meta in this case. I would love to meet the person who trusts meta more than Google. Yeah. If you're out there, email me. I don't think you exist.

But yeah, I agree with you. Go ahead. Yeah. And also, just on that note of, you know, I actually really like the Meta Rayvans. I really like that a lot of what Google seems to be doing here is mirroring some of the things that meta set up. that were inherently good, like the gesture bar and button set up. I'm excited for this. I think it looks much better than anything I've tried because also, like at CES, I got a chance to try out the Even Reality's Glasses, which I think Andrew is putting up a review on here shortly.

They're really good. The software is decent, but it's also like very inconsistent, especially compared to what Google's looks like. Yeah, I think Google's strength here is going to be that as a company, it has so much experience building excellent UIs and, you know, knowing that they have learned that maybe wasn't 100% true. But like I would say for the last decade at least, they have been, they have shown a real knowledge at building easy to use intelligent like user interface.

faces and I everything that we've seen here so far uh points to a similar direction right it looks good it's minimalist it but it's not overly distracting or confusing um and i think the back button actually helps a lot there um compared to compared to uh earlier rivals that i think will probably you know they can compete but they will have to um work fast to keep up yeah and to continue the comparison to the even realities, I like how simple Google's seems to be. The problem I have with the even realities is you turn on the display and you're immediately ready with the time, your calendar, widgets,

whether it's a bunch of information. It's a bunch of information. It's not contextualized at all. Like, when I was wearing these glasses, I was like, all I really want these to do is show me my notifications. And then, the other feature that intrigued me was the to-do list because you can just ask the AI to make a to-do list and then you'll be able to just see it at a glance which is nice um but like at least when they launched you couldn't tell it to you know just turn on to the notifications you had to if you if you saw notification and didn't immediately interact with it you had to turn it on swipe down through a bunch of menus and then open your notification shade and that's a mess I love that Google's just seems contextual.

And I'm hopeful that you can access notifications faster than that. If you don't do them immediately. At the very least, again, it's simpler. It looks simpler and nice. All of this feels like Google is using specifically its work

and the evolution of Wear OS as a platform as inspiration for how this should be navigated because this doesn't feel like trying to replicate a smartphone on your face as much as it's trying to replicate a smart watch. And I think that is a much more much, certainly at this stage in the game, a much better approach to to kicking off this as a form factor. Yeah, I'd say wear OS is a good starting point

because that's the problem with most smart glasses today is that they don't have anything to base themselves off of. So they're just building everything from scratch. Again, they're looking at smartphones. Yeah. Yeah. And again, going back to the Even Reality is because that's the one I tried the most is, again, one of my issues is they have their own mapping setup. It can't even pull the notification from Google Maps, which would be significantly better. Yeah. So I'm really looking forward to this.

Yeah. So that's Android XR. Hopefully, Google this week announced that I.O. 26 is May 9. 90 to 20th. Hopefully we'll get, we'll start hearing more about grasses that you can buy around then too. But yeah,

that is Google I. That's the thing to look forward to 90 days. Did you guys play the games? Did you guys play any of the games? Yes. Yes, we always do. We love to do it. I just kept playing whole in one.

I just love golf games. Yeah, I went through the whole thing. I thought it was really interesting this year that they actually made them different between individual users. Yes. Because that's never been a thing.

Yeah, it was interesting. I don't know. I always love, I love that they haven't stopped doing this because there's a world where Google is, you know, taking, especially, yeah,

it's taking more seriously. It's just sending out invites. And I'm glad that, you know, it's 2026 and we're still getting our, our IO unlock puzzles. And I just appreciate that. Well, guys, that's it.

thank you both for joining me Ben, thank you for guesting two weeks in a row. Damien stuck on the International Space Station is what he told me to say. So, you know, we're going to get our boy down. We're going to call in, who is in the Martian? Matt Damon. We're going to call in Matt Damon

to get Damien back to Earth. But yeah, that's it for this week, guys. Thank you both for joining me. And thank you, the listener, for listening. And we will catch you all next week. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9 to 5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.