We learned a lot about the Pixel 9a this week

Google is having a hard time keeping the Pixel 9a secret. We’ve seen a ton of leaks about Google’s upcoming midranger this week, from color variants to a possible release date. We even took a look at the phone’s wallpapers. But that’s not all: we also learned that Android 16 is launching with a convention-breaking (but still thematically appropriate) codename, and that it could be making its way to our phones sooner than we thought. Here’s the Google news you need to know.

Pixel 9a leaks everywhere

We learned a lot about the Pixel 9a leaks this week. We’ve gotten new information surrounding the 9a: we’ve seen new renders, taken a look at the color options, learned the 9a’s possible release window, and even seen the upcoming phone’s wallpapers.

The latest renders come from OnLeaks via Android Headlines. They’re consistent with what we’ve seen so far: the 9a will apparently be a relatively plain slab with no camera bump to speak of, but instead a flush, pill-shaped window for two cameras. The loss of the camera bar does take away from the Pixel’s established visual identity a bit, but I’m pretty tired of the camera bumps and so see it as a victory of function over form.

Leaked dimensions, again from OnLeaks and Android Headlines, show that the 9a will be just a touch taller and wider than the 8a, but also thinner. The 9a is said to measure 154 x 73 x 8.6mm, while the 8a measures 152.1 x 72.7 x 8.9mm. It will reportedly be available in four colors: the established Porcelain and Obsidian colors, as well as Peony (presumably a bright red-pink, like the Pixel 9) and Iris, which will reportedly have a blue-purple hue.

Android Authority has gotten its hands on eight wallpapers that are rumored to ship on the 9a, including a light and dark version that corresponds to each of the color variants listed above. (Full resolution versions are available in this Google Drive folder.)

If recent leaks make it seem like the 9a is pretty far along in development, then you’re probably right. As Android Headlines reports again, the Pixel 9a will go on sale sooner than previous A-series Pixels: AA sources say the 9a will be available in March 2025, a few months ahead of the typical May.

Multimodal search is coming to Google Lens

Google Lens introduced an eye-catching new video search feature this week. Now Search Labs participants can press and hold the shutter button in Google Lens to record a video. You also have the opportunity to talk while recording and ask questions about what you are watching. When you release the shutter, Lens attempts to analyze your video and audio input and answer your questions with an AI summary.

Video search was actually introduced before Google officially announced it. If you’re interested in giving it a try, you can sign up for Google’s Search Labs program.

Android 16 could be a spring release

We also learned a lot about Android 16 this week. For one thing, it seems like the upcoming Android version will break with Google’s traditional naming convention. Starting with Android 1.5 Cupcake, each subsequent version was named after a candy whose first letter was the next in the alphabet: 2.0 Donut, 2.2 Eclair, and so on. Android 15 is Vanilla Ice Cream, so we’d expect Android 16 to be codenamed for a dessert that starts with W.

Apparently not. Mishaal Rahman reports again for Android Authority and writes that Android 16 will be codenamed Baklava. The change appears to be due to Google’s introduction of trunk-based development for Android, which began last year with Android 14 QPR2 and came with a new naming pattern for build IDs.

Rahman also reported for Android Authority this week that Android 16 may be ready sooner than we expected, in part because of this trunk-based development. While Google has typically released new Android versions every fall in recent years, Android 16 could launch in the second quarter of 2025.

Google is (finally?) placing ads in its AI

Google has found a way to use its AI ambitions as another canvas for online ads. The company announced this week that AI Digests, the AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of many Google searches, will now include advertising in relevant places. Google uses the example of stain remover ads that appear in an AI overview on how to remove grass stains from clothing.

The ads are clearly marked as sponsored, but it’s still hard to see the change as a positive for anyone other than Google and its advertising partners. If you had googled how to remove grass stains from your shirt five or ten years ago, you probably would have ended up on a website that explained how to do it, while also running ads that generated revenue for the site that served you offers this service.

In Google’s example, AI overviews display information sourced from such sites, bypassing advertising paid for by the people who collected the information, wrote the steps, and published that information on the web. Advertisers pay Google for ad space in the AI ​​digest, which repackages this type of human-generated content into a summary. Bald.

After all, Google Home probably doesn’t have the Find My Device feature.

Many users reported this week that their Pixel Buds Pro 2 and Pixel Watch 3 devices were appearing under a heading in the Google Home app Linked to you. The devices appear as “Offline,” but tapping their icons opens a settings page that gives you the option to unlink the devices from the Google Find My Device network. This got a lot of people – AP included – talking about Google Home adopting the Find My Device feature.

Apparently it was all a mistake. 9to5Google has reported that the “Linked to You” section displayed in Google Home was a bug and a future update will remove devices like the Pixel Buds Pro 2 from Google Home. Strange, but perhaps less strange than a Google Home x Find My Device mashup would have been.

Android could soon get integrated location sharing

As noted Android tinkerer AssembleDebug discovered, Google Maps’ location sharing feature could soon be integrated into the Android operating system. According to screenshots shared by AssembleDebug, the ability to share your real-time location will soon be removed from Maps to be a system-level feature. Apparently you can also manage who you share your location with right from your device’s settings, without even having to open Google Maps.

Wear OS receives independent RCS support

LTE-enabled Wear OS watches can send and receive messages when you’re away from your phone. There’s a problem, though: Wear OS doesn’t currently have native support for RCS, so any messages you send when you’re away from your phone’s Bluetooth range are based on SMS.

Again, according to AssembleDebug, the latest beta version of Google Messages for Wear OS contains code that suggests native RCS is in the works (one string reads “bugle.enable_wear_standalone_rcs,” which seems pretty cut and dry). We’re not sure when to expect the feature to roll out, but we at least know it’s being worked on.

Pixel Buds Pro 2 have hidden Auracast support

We’re big fans of Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 and apparently they’ll get even better at some point. Android creator Mishaal Rahman reported for Android Authority this week that the Buds Pro 2 support Auracast, a Bluetooth feature that allows multiple hearing aids to connect to a single source device to hear the same sound.

Google hasn’t promoted Auracast as a Buds Pro 2 feature, presumably because the feature is planned as part of Android 15, which isn’t rolling out in a stable manner yet. Still, Rahman was able to get Auracast working on the Pixel Buds Pro 2 with a bit of finesse, so we expect Google to talk more about it around Android 15’s official launch.