Pixel Recorder adds favoriting, Audio channels, & auto language detect [U]

Abner Li | Nov 2 2023 - 7:24 am PT

Later this year, Google will add AI summaries to the Recorder app on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, but in the meantime, you can now favorite your recordings.

Update 11/2: Version 4.2.20231003.575121345 of Recorder is rolling out via the Play Store. There are no new features with this update, but Google has updated the changelog with “Mark your favorite recordings” and:

Automatically detect which language is speaking and transcribe for you, note that speaker labels won’t be applied while enabling this feature

It went live with the previous release. Open Settings > Transcription language to select “Detect language.”

Update 10/14: This update also adds “Audio channels” in Settings with the ability to select Mono or Stereo for recordings.

Original 10/13: The toolbar at the top of a recording now features a star next to Share, Edit, Search, and the overflow menu. This will result in a “Favorites” section, which notes how many have been saved, appearing at the top of the app just underneath “Search your recordings.”

Besides a dedicated feed, recordings in the main list will feature a “Favorited” label. This Favorites section is also synced to recorder.google.com on the web.

Favorites is rolling out with version 4.2.20230908.x of Pixel Recorder as part of a server-side update in recent days. It’s certainly better than scrolling the main feed or having to search.

Google typically rolls out big updates to the Recorder app alongside new Pixel devices or just after. Speaker Labels was the big feature last year, and “Summarize” is coming in December, providing you a bullet-point recap.