Earlier today, Google surprised us all by confirming that the Pixel 8 will support Gemini Nano, the on-device generative AI feature, after previously saying that support would only be available on the Pixel 8 Pro. The news was announced on the Made by Google podcast. But that wasn’t the only thing Google revealed in the episode (h/t 9 to 5 google).
Google Vice President Seang Chau discussed various aspects of the Pixel ecosystem in detail. One of the leaks ties into one of the biggest news at launch for the Pixel 8 series, which is that Google will support it for a full seven years. It turns out that the choice of seven years was not arbitrary. This was actually a thoughtful choice based on the first Google Pixel. This is what Chau said:
So when we look at the trajectory of the original Pixel, which launched in 2016, and how many people are still using the original Pixel, we see that actually, up until about seven years ago, there was a pretty good active user base. So if we think about it, okay, we want the Pixel to be supported for as long as people are using the device, seven years is the right number.
Doing the math, that means enough people were using the original Pixel as recently as last year. This may be an anomaly, though, as the original Pixel still supports unlimited photo and video uploading to Google Photos. There are a lot of people who use Pixel as a sort of “server” through which they upload all their photos and videos so as not to impact their Google Photos storage limit. The OG Pixel will likely be used forever.
Regardless, Zhou also elaborated on how Google was able to make such a long-term commitment. Unsurprisingly, this is largely due to Google’s in-house designed mobile chipset, Tensor. “SoCs probably create the most complexity when we’re talking about software updates,” Chau said, and teams need to make sure their “labs have the capability to do…continuous testing.” Chau also stressed the need to work with carriers, vendors and the entire Android team.
Unfortunately, Chau didn’t reveal whether other Pixels besides the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro will have their old five-year and three-year update commitments extended. We’ll just have to wait and see.