Pixel Screenshots: Google replicates Recall capabilities but brings it to mobile

Google arrived big at the Made by Google 2024 event. The Mountain View tech giant launched new Pixel 9 phones, Pixel Watch 3, and Pixel Buds Pro 2 devices—coupled with new AI capabilities such as one for Pixel Screenshots.

In the end, it’s like the Recall feature from Microsoft all over again, but on mobile.

In its demonstration, Google describes that the Pixel 9-exclusive AI makes your Pixel Screenshots searchable. Using the on-device Gemini Nano AI model, you can search specific content within the screenshots by typing keywords, then it pulls up relevant images.

Sure, the iPhone’s Photos app does have this. You can look up “plants” or “food” and then pictures of such things will show up. But, Google takes things to another level by letting you ask specific questions such as, “What was the gift idea for Taylor?”

“For example, if you have a screenshot of a door code for an upcoming vacation stay but can’t remember it when you arrive, you can simply ask Pixel Screenshots to quickly and easily find it for you,” Google explains.

Besides, Pixel Screenshots can also extract and provide information from the images, such as the price of a product, so it does more than just simply group screenshots based on what they are about.

When Microsoft first launched Recall for Copilot+ PCs, the response was overwhelmed by security concerns because it needs to periodically take snapshots of your desktop. It was a PR disaster for the Redmond company, so much so that it had to disable it by default.

But unlike Recall, Google’s Pixel Screenshots does not need the whole nine yards of storing snapshots of your PCs. Instead, it’s limited to screenshots that you’ve taken manually, but it is not available in all countries or languages (for now, at least).