In 2021, it was hard to imagine that Google could shake up things with its Pixel lineup of devices. After having several years of disappointing and lackluster hardware, the company is turning heads. Google has begun to shake up its Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, along with compatible devices from other manufacturers, with some incredibly useful and downright stunning features. Want to know what we’re talking about, read on.

Hold for me goes global

First, it started with the “hold for me” feature being widely deployed across continents. Now while this feature wasn’t something that we first discovered this year, it was the first year that it went to the masses (well Pixel masses). Hold for Me, allows users while on phone calls to simply put down the phone while waiting on hold and pick it back up when someone is actually waiting on the other end. This effectively meant the end of the dreaded elevator hold music while waiting for hours on hold. Welcome relief, especially as the pandemic wreaks havoc on call centres everywhere.

Did someone say wait time?

Secondly, is the “wait time” feature. This feature displays anticipated wait times for chat and voice conversations directly on the screen, prior to hitting dial. Now while many may actually still want to hold for hours, waiting for the customer service agent to answer, when I tried the feature it meant that instead of waiting on hold I simply hit “chat”. I was immediately connected to a waiting representative and while this experience was flawless.

Forget spam callers

Last but certainly not least is the most impactful feature this year: automatic call screening. Full stop, this feature will likely save you tons of frustration and time. With the growing prevalence of robocalls and spam callers, the automatic call screening feature kicks spam callers and robocalls to the curb without even disturbing you. If you’re not as lucky to have the fully-automatic version of this feature (only the US is fully automatic for now), the manual call-screen feature will interrogate suspected robocalls on your behalf and still let you kick them.

Pixel 6 feature drops with Google Duplex?

With the growing use of Google’s Duplex technology and extensive data collection, we’re sure to see a lot more features to come to the Google Pixel devices over the coming months. Features like Google’s fully duplex appointment booking technology, crash detection and other Pixel features are likely to be released to other markets this year. If this pace of releases is any indication, 2022 might be the year of the Pixel.