Google has announced a significant free AI upgrade to all Pixel 9-series owners in a surprise April 2025 “Pixel Drop,” but not all Pixel owners are happy.
Google April 2025 Pixel Drop At A Glance
- Google is making its premium Gemini Live camera and screen sharing features free to use for all Pixel 9-series users.
- Pixel 9 Pro-series owners already have the features through Gemini Advanced
- Owners of Pixel 8-series and older aren’t included
- The move adds considerable value to the forthcoming budget-friendly Pixel 9a
Google April 2025 Pixel Drop — What’s New?
Google officially announced on April 8 that all Pixel 9-series smartphones now have free access to Gemini Live’s new voice and screen sharing capabilities. I’ve gone into more detail about these features previously, but essentially what they do is let you give the Gemini App live access to your screen or the view through your camera, so you can converse with it in real time about what it sees.
As shown in Google’s promotional video above, Gemini Live with Voice is a game-changing way to use your smartphone to get information about the world around you that requires no typing. Until now, this feature, along with screen sharing in Gemini Live, was available only to those holding a paid Gemini Advanced subscription.
As such, these new Gemini Live features are a significant upgrade for most owners of the standard Pixel 9, but Pixel 9 Pro-series owners already benefit from these functions through their included 2-month Gemini Advanced subscriptions. This leads me to suspect the unusual timing and limited scope of Google’s surprise April 2025 Pixel Drop are really all about the upcoming Pixel 9a, due for release on April 10.
By extending these powerful new functions to the Pixel 9a, Google can showcase its best AI features on its new lower-cost model without having to bundle an expensive Google One AI Premium subscription — currently the only way to purchase Gemini Advanced.
A year of Google One AI Premium currently costs almost half as much as the $499 entry-level Pixel 9a, and the base Pixel 9 is already on sale without one. Whatever features Google gives to the Pixel 9a it must also surely give to the existing Pixel 9 too, so this feature drop is a neat way of getting around that problem.
The imminent Pixel 9a launch may also be part of the reason why Google isn’t extending this offer to Pixel 8 owners, some of whom are understandably displeased (see comments to the YouTube video above), that they won’t be getting the new features despite owning relatively recent smartphones.
It’s unusual for a Pixel drop to focus on a single, major feature and, more importantly, to limit its availability exclusively to the latest Pixel series. However, doing so makes for a more compelling Pixel 9a launch and will presumably tempt more users to upgrade. On the other hand, it’s one less reason for Pixel 9 Pro users to start paying for Gemini Advanced when their bundled 12-month subscriptions come to an end.
Will these free Gemini Live updates be enough to tempt you to upgrade to the Pixel 9a?
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