If I’m honest, Google made me a little nervous when it introduced the Pixel 10 series. Not because I thought it was about to ruin the things I love about its flagships, but because it seemed like Google was starting to run out of ideas for clever software features. Everything it hung its hat on, from Magic Cue to the Daily Hub, seemed like a careful copy of someone else’s idea, and it took some of the wind out of my sails.
I should have known better. Yes, the Pixel 10 series does have a familiar feature or two from some of its closest Android rivals, but they’re hardly cheap clones. At this rate, I think Google copying features from Samsung, OnePlus, and Motorola should put everyone else on notice.
Anything you can do, I can do better
Google’s copying features should make everyone else nervous because Google will take the best that other companies have and do it better. It’s as simple as that. I didn’t think it would — I figured OnePlus’s Open Canvas would still be the best of its kind, and Motorola’s Next Move would stay the most reliable AI guide — but I was wrong. Google has already closed the gap on both features, and I can only expect upcoming Pixel Drops to smooth things out further.
Well, Magic Cue isn’t precisely the same as Next Move, but I would argue that it takes the same idea and improves on it. Motorola developed its feature to guide you into the AI features you might need, like making a playlist or generating an image. Magic Cue, on the other hand, uses Gemini to pick out the information you might need at a given time, like the location for a dinner reservation or the arrival time of a flight. It’s still using AI to make life easier, but not in a way that it wants to push an Amazon Music playlist on you.
I realize now that Google didn't copy features, but it definitely took some inspiration.
Granted, we’ve had a little trouble getting Magic Cue to trigger in our earliest days with the Pixel 10 series. We’ll go through spells where it seems to know exactly what information to suggest, followed by a day or two where Magic Cue is about as attentive as a friend who’s half listening.
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
I’d put Google’s 100x Pro Res Zoom in that same category of halfway better right now, too. Google was very open about applying a different AI model to images of people when you punch all the way in, which is a polite way to say they look awful. And yet, when it handles bigger shapes like buildings, boats, and the heavy machinery that dots Baltimore’s harbor, the final images are often better than Samsung’s long-range processing.
On that same Samsung-based thread, I really wasn’t sure how I’d feel about Google’s Daily Hub at first. I mean, it looks and feels a lot like Samsung’s Now Brief, which… underwhelmed to say the least. I never felt like I got great recommendations for news articles or playlists from Samsung, so I didn’t expect much from Google. For the most part, I think my caution was justified. I think the Daily Hub does better with upcoming appointments, weather, and things I might want to research with Gemini, but its recommended YouTube videos are a little too unpredictable.
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