Take a Message, which is Google’s AI-powered take on visual voicemail for Pixel smartphones, is about to receive a major new enhancement. In addition to the existing ability to view incoming voicemails in real-time with live transcriptions, it appears the option to set up custom greetings is in the pipeline for a future stable release.
As first spotted by the folks over at Android Authority, this new Greetings feature is beginning to roll out on select Pixel handsets running Google’s first-party Phone app, specifically in beta version 217.0.895016164-publicbeta-pixel.
Within the latest build of the beta Phone by Google app, Pixel users with access to the feature can navigate to Settings > Take a Message > Manage greetings to get started. From within here, it’s possible to record a custom greeting of up to sixty seconds in length, with the option to record multiple messages and to archive them within a dedicated library interface.
There’s also a suite of voicemail message management tools on offer, with the ability to rename or to delete entries, as well as to set a default greeting from your collection of recordings. This is all a marked improvement over the current shipping implementation of Take a Message, which uses a generic, automated Google Assistant recording to indicate unavailability.
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- Brand
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Google
- SoC
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Tensor G5
- Display
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6.3-inch Actua Display 1080 x 2424 pixel resolution OLED (60-120Hz)
- RAM
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12GB
- Storage
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128GB/256GB
- Battery
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4,970mAh
Google’s Pixel 10 features the tech giant’s new Tensor G5 chip and a three-camera setup for the first time that includes a 10.8-megapixel telephoto camera.
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- Brand
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Google
- SoC
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Tensor G4
- Display
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6.3-inch 1080 x 2424 pixel resolution pOLED
- RAM
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8GB
- Storage
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128GB/256GB
- Battery
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5,100mAh
The Pixel 10a is a mid-range Android smartphone from Google with a Tensor G4 processor, a 6.3-inch OLED display panel, and a 5,100mAh battery capacity.
State-of-the-art tech finds its old-school match
Who said new features can’t take inspiration from the past?
Google debuted Take a Message alongside its Pixel 10 series of smartphones in August of last year. The feature streamlines voicemail as a whole, making it easy to handle missed or declined calls right from within the Pixel’s native dialer application. On-device AI handles message transcriptions, which is a handy addition for those times when you can’t listen to a recording out loud.
By introducing the ability to record custom greeting messages within the Take a Message experience, Google is effectively wrestling that last bit of control over voicemail away from carriers, most of which offer clunky, outdated solutions reliant on dialer presses for navigation and recordings.
If and when Greetings for Take a Message launches to the public, it’ll be a major step-up over existing solutions from an end-user perspective.
If and when Greetings for Take a Message launches to the public, it’ll be a major step-up over existing solutions from an end-user perspective, with the added bonus of being able to create multiple unavailable messages and to quickly switch between them. Android Authority has also confirmed the existence of code snippets which reference the ability to set custom greetings on a per-contact basis, which would only further modernize the experience.
Of course, the ability to record custom voicemail greetings is nothing new in itself, but its modernized, AI-infused implementation from Google is a great example of taking an old-school technology and making it smarter for the modern era. Even if most of us don’t send or receive phone calls nearly as often as we used to, a more personable and accessible AI-driven voicemail flow is much appreciated on the whole.
