These are the 5 best AI features on the Google Pixel 10 Pro I actually use

Pixel has long been about clever features and intelligent use of machine learning or AI rather than brute force hardware power, and the Pixel 10 Pro fits nicely into this set of expectations.

Most features I regularly use on aren't new for the Google Pixel 10 but have largely been mainstays of the Pixel experience. While Magic Cue, Pixel Journal, Take a Message, and other features are all amazing in their own right, I simply don't find myself using them. Google even pulled the Pixel Daily Hub because it wasn't meeting expectations, proving that not everything new is worthy.

So what's actually good and worth using? Here are all the nifty Pixel AI features I actually use.

Call screening and scam detection

This feature has been around since the Pixel 3, but it has also undergone significant enhancements over the years. In short, Pixel phones can automatically screen calls from unknown numbers (or known scam numbers), filter out scams, wait on hold for you, and more.

Say what you will about Tensor's gaming performance or some other issue, but everyone I've ever known who has switched to a Pixel is blown away by how well these features work. It's not hyperbole to say this is a game-changer, as so many Reddit users point out.

Since its inception, Google has expanded these capabilities to include caller ID and spam filtering, scam detection, call screening, voice translation, and features such as Call Notes, Take a Message, Hold for Me, Direct My Call, and Audio Emojis. Samsung and a few other OEMs offer similar features, but no one actually filters spam better than a Pixel phone, and it's still one of the best reasons to buy one.

Camera motion capture

Pro Res Zoom and Camera Coach might have been the big new features for this year's Pixel 10 camera, but once again, it's a faithful old feature that I find to be the most useful. I'm talking about Frequent Faces, a feature you need to enable in the camera settings and one that ensures pictures of your favorite people and pets come out crisp every time.

Frequent Faces builds upon what Google built in Google Photos many years ago. Your Pixel will recognize the faces of people and pets you most often take photos of and locally store that data for reference. When you take future photos of these people or pets, the Pixel camera software understands that these faces should be prioritized in the shot.

This lets you capture a crisp photo of your 2-year-old while they're running around in the evening, whereas other phones might just capture a blurry image. It's yet another passive AI-based capability that I find incredibly useful on Pixel phones, and something no other phone can do.

Pixel Recorder

Of all the dedicated Pixel apps on the phone, Pixel Recorder is my most used. It's no surprise, given my profession — journalism requires a lot of recording, logging, and note-taking — and Pixel Recorder has been one of my all-time favorite apps since its launch on the Pixel 4.

Many phones have built-in audio recorders that can transcribe the audio, but the Pixel's is still the best for several reasons. First, transcription quality is better than any other phone or app I've tried. Even services like Otter don't perform quite as well, and all of these transcriptions happen locally on your phone. Plus, the recordings and transcripts are automatically backed up to your Google account.

Speaker labels are automatically created, and you can quickly thumb through the automatically-generated summary or search for anything in the recording that you want to find. Plus, Pixel 10 updates add music generation capabilities, so if you're someone who often catches a tune playing in their head and wants to turn it into a legit song, Pixel Recorder can help you do that.

Pixel Screenshots

I'm someone who takes a lot of screenshots. Like Pixel Recorder, this is most often for my job, as I'll catalog noteworthy app features or updates and later go back to reference those for a post. Pixel Screenshots makes it easy to not only categorize and organize those screenshots, but also to search their contents effortlessly.

You can also send screenshots directly to Notebook LM when you capture them, enabling even more detailed ways to search and summarize information. With everything at our fingertips, it can be hard to find a single place to store everything for later reference. These two apps offer genuinely excellent and unique ways to help.

Make a meme

Veo 3 is the latest AI image and audio generation tool from Google, and it's integrated directly into Gemini. While any phone or device can utilize this service as part of Gemini's "make a video" feature, Pixel 10 Pro phones are the easiest option, as they all come with one year of Google AI Pro for free.

I can't tell you how many times I've hopped into the Gemini app and asked it to make a quick video for me. Whether this was something as superfluous as a bespoke meme for a conversation with friends or a way to fill 8 seconds of a YouTube video I was creating, Gemini's Veo 3-powered video creation has become a staple in my digital toolbox.

If you're not into video but still want quick, bespoke images, Pixel Studio is your best bet. This app is found on newer Pixel phones and can be used to create everything from a fun "happy birthday" image featuring your nephew's favorite characters to stickers of cute capybaras, because why not?