Pixel Recorder 4.2 rolls out ‘Speaker Labels’ that detect multiple people talking

Abner Li | Dec 7 2022 - 4:58 pm PT

During the October event, Google previewed that the Pixel’s Recorder app will soon be able to identify multiple people, and “Speaker Labels” are now rolling out.

Update 12/7: Recorder 4.2.493298253 is widely rolling out via the Play Store this afternoon with Speaker Labels. Announced with December’s Pixel Feature Drop on Monday, the ability to recognize and identify multiple people is available on the Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a, 7 and 7 Pro, or all Tensor-powered devices.

It joins other fully rolled out features from the drop, like Clear Calling, Live Bloom wallpapers, unified Pixel Launcher Search, and new Tiles for the Pixel Watch. The combined Safety & privacy settings page is not available yet for most people.

Original 12/1: Version 4.2 of Recorder is rolling out today via the Play Store with Speaker Labels that “automatically detect and label each speaker when recording.” The release is not yet widely available.

Google explains how “Voice models are stored temporarily on-device until speaker labeling of your transcript is completed, and then deleted (usually within a few minutes). The speaker text labels will be saved in your transcript, and can be updated by you.”

People are identified as Speaker 1, Speaker 2, etc., and you can “change the name for each speaker in the recording.” They are also identified in the feed with different name colors and Material You shapes. Notably, Speaker Labels will not work if your “Device is too hot.”

We manually sideloaded version 4.2 on a Pixel 6 Pro and 7 Pro running Android 13 QPR1 Beta 3.1. After updating, you’ll get a prompt to continue and enable. A new button appears in the bottom-right corner of the recording UI to quickly turn on/off. You can also disable the feature entirely in settings.

Speakers are identified in real-time, while Recorder automatically starts a new line with each speaker switch. Users have some transcription editing tools after they’re done.

After pressing “Edit speaker labels” in the toolbar, you can tap the transcript to “Split from here.” Selecting a speaker lets you rename, create a new one, or assign an existing speaker to the passage.

As of today, Speaker Labels do not appear in recorder.google.com, which would be great for uniformity in the future.

Lastly, Google has tweaked the Microphone settings sheet in version 4.2 with “Auto-detect” now “Switch to an external mic or Bluetooth device automatically when connected.”