The Assistant is even standing by to help you before you even unlock your phone, thanks to the Pixel 2's new always-on display feature. In addition to the usual time, date and notification info that appears on the phone's screen, the Assistant can also detect any music that's playing around you — say a song playing at a café — pulling up information about the artist. Tap on that song to go to the Assistant where you can perform all sorts of other functions like adding the song to your library, playing the video on YouTube or searching the web for more information. It's like Shazam, but without ever having to bother to fire up the app.
Assistant figures to get smarter as well. The new Pixels will be the first phone to feature Google Lens, an object recognition feature first previewed at this year's I/O developers conference. Google Lens will work both in the Photos and Camera apps. Tap on an object in a photo you've shot, and the Assistant will summon up information about it. Or point your camera at a book or movie poster and you can summon up reviews.
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