Now you can get wireless headphones from Google. The company unveiled the Pixel Buds, a pair of premium wireless headphones that have Google Assistant built-in. It’s able to play music, provide real-time translation, and feed you notifications normally limited to your phone. While the Pixel Buds appear to be a direct competitor to Apple’s AirPods, Google’s new product looks a lot more interesting due to the inclusion of machine learning.
From the outside, the Pixel Buds look like any other pair of wireless headphones. It has two earpieces for sound that are connected by a single wire. The connection with your phone is maintained over Bluetooth. Both earpieces have a speaker, microphone, and adjustable loop. But only the right earpiece has a touchpad for manual commands.
Battery life is estimated to be up to five hours of listening time on a single charge, and Google says the device’s charging case holds multiple charges where you can get up to twenty-four hours of listening time altogether.
What’s in the Pixel Buds will surprise you. Google packed a bunch of technology that makes these wireless headphones smarter than anything else on the market.
The brain behind this device is Google Assistant. A few weeks ago, Google announced its digital assistant would be integrated into personal audio products starting with the Bose QC35 II headphones. Google didn’t wait long to introduce its own offering. The Pixel Buds are a Google-made product with Google Assistant built-in. You can activate Google Assistant just by touching the right earpiece on the Pixel Buds. Google Assistant will start listening and respond with corresponding information.
Without question, the most impressive thing about the Pixel Buds is the ability for real-time translation through Google Translate. Just make a request through Google Assistant and the Pixel Buds start listening to what the person nearby is saying while translating right into your ears. There’s an option to speak and have your phone output translation, too.
Google already has the Pixel Buds up for pre-order on the Google Store. You can choose from Just Black, Clearly White, and Kinda Blue for the earpiece color but the wire is black for all of them. The Pixel Buds are priced at $159 and should ship by the end of November.
