Listen up: Google’s excellent voice to text software will arrive on older Pixel phones

One of the best features of the Pixel 4 will be rolled out to the rest of Google’s own-brand smartphones, according to official confirmation.

According to the PixelCommunity representative on Reddit, the Recorder app that made its debut with the Google Pixel 4 will be rolled out to previous models in the series via a software update, including last year’s flagship Pixel 3 and the mid-range Pixel 3a. There’s not yet a date schedule for when it appears, but we hope it’s not long before all Pixel users get to experience this cutting-edge convenience.

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We rated the Recorder app as one of the best software tricks of the Google Pixel 4 in our review. Describing it as a “killer feature”, we were very impressed by its accuracy and the potential hassle that it will save users such as students or journalists who can take advantage of a real-time transcription service to cut down on the hours spent writing up notes.

Aside from this app alone, in general the Android 10 software of the Pixel 4 impressed us by its pairing of simplicity and functionality. But the hardware was more of a mixed bag. While the camera once again met the excellent high standards of previous Pixel phones thanks in particular to its excellent night-shooting mode, unfortunately we found that the battery (at a capacity of just 2800mAh) lags behind its flagship competitors.

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We hope that this compromising battery issue is improved in time for the expected release of the budget-friendly Pixel 4a, the next handset we expect Google to release. Having been impressed by the Pixel 3a, this looks like a fresh opportunity for Google to overshadow the rest of the mid-range market at least in terms of camera performance – but it would be a shame for this prowess to be undermined by a sub-standard battery capacity.