Google Pixel's Car Crash Detection, Other Safety Features Heading to More Android Phones: Report

Strings of code in the new Personal Safety app indicate the arrival of Pixel features to other Android devices.

By Nithya P Nair | Updated: 29 June 2022 17:03 IST

Google Pixel's Car Crash Detection, Other Safety Features Heading to More Android Phones: Report

Personal Safety app version 2022.05.25 started rolling out

Highlights

Google is reportedly adding Pixel-exclusive features to non-Pixel phones
The safety feature contacts emergency services on behalf of users
Google is said to add crisis alerts and safety checks feature to Android

Google Pixel devices offer an exclusive safety feature called car crash detection, which automatically calls emergency numbers when a crash is detected. The functionality that uses motion sensors in a smartphone to detect accidents could soon reach non-Pixel Android phones. New string of codes reportedly found in Google's latest Personal Safety app suggests that certain new safety features would be making their way to other Android phones. Alongside the car crash detection feature, Android phones are expected to get the crisis alert and safety check features.

The expansion of the car crash detection feature to other Android devices was spotted by 9to5Google via an APK teardown while examining the latest version of the Personal Safety app. The Personal Safety app version 2022.05.25 is currently available on Google Play. The publication shared strings in the code referring to 'nonpixel' phones, indicating that Google could be bringing the safety feature to non-Pixel phones. As per the report, Google tweaked the code in some places to general “your device” instead of “Pixel.” Additionally, some pixel exclusive features including crisis alerts and safety checks are also reportedly coming to other Android phones.

It is not clear how the company would add the features to non-Pixel Android phones since it needs a couple of permissions to function. The Personal Safety features are expected to be released via Google Play Services. The names of Android smartphones that will initially get access to the car crash detection and other new safety features are also not known at this moment. It is likely to be available on a brand-by-brand basis.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

Google's car crash detection is currently available on Google Pixel 3 and later devices in select regions with certain carriers. The feature, as mentioned, uses sensors to determine the phone's location, motion sensors, and nearby sounds to detect a car crash. The feature does not work when Battery Saver is on or Airplane mode is enabled. When a crash is detected, the phone calls emergency services, and the approximate location and car crash data will be transmitted to emergency services by Android's Emergency Location Service.

Pixel 7 Series, Pixel Tablet Tipped to Get New Camera Features

We discuss the best of Google I/O 2022 on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Google Pixel 3

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS
Variants

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Excellent build, comfortable to handle
Intuitive software features
Very good cameras
HDR capable display
Excellent stereo speakers

Bad
Expensive

Read detailed Google Pixel 3 review

Display 5.50-inch

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 845

Front Camera 8-megapixel + 8-megapixel

Rear Camera 12.2-megapixel

RAM 4GB

Storage 64GB

Battery Capacity 2915mAh

OS Android 9.0

Resolution 1080x2160 pixels

More Google mobiles Google mobiles price in India

Choose a variant

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Google Pixel, Car crash detection, Car crash detection feature, Google Personal Safety, Personal Safety, Google Pixel 3, Google

Nithya P Nair

Email Nithya P Nair

Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More