This Pixel App Makes All Your Screenshots Searchable
Google’s flagship Pixel 9 phones not only introduced new hardware, but also brought with them an impressive array of new software features, most of which involve artificial intelligence in some way. Here we’re going to take a closer look at one of the best new features that’s designed to make it easier for you to remember anything on your phone: pixelated screenshots.
At the time of writing, it’s exclusive to the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Google hasn’t said any word on whether older phones will get this too, so we’ll have to wait and see. If you have one of the aforementioned phones, you’ll find a Pixel Screenshots shortcut in the app drawer.
Visit our Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro review pages and you’ll see that Pixel Screenshots were actually our favorite of the new AI features added to the 2024 series, and here’s how you can try them out for yourself.
How pixelated screenshots work
Pixel Screenshots, as the name suggests, puts a special focus on all the screenshots you’ve taken on your phone, which on the Pixel 9 series means you press the power and volume down buttons simultaneously while the screen flashes. As usual, they’re saved to your photo gallery, but with the new Pixel Screenshots app, you can do more with them, too.
The app uses local AI processing (nothing is sent to the cloud) to figure out what’s in your screenshots. It’s powered by Gemini Nano , which may explain some of the limitations that currently exist on devices with Pixel Screenshots installed: features within the app require a certain level of AI performance to work.
Once the AI processing is complete, you can use it to search through the screenshots you’ve collected: You might want to find specific lines of text, or specific images or symbols, or specific people or places mentioned in those captured images. Anything that can be recognized can be used as a search, and the app also allows you to organize your screenshots into hand-curated collections.
Think about those times you take a screenshot on your phone just to remember something: a pillow you want to buy, a receipt that pops up on your phone, a chat conversation with an address in it, a social media message that someone… sent it to you. … the list goes on. Instead of scattering those screenshots haphazardly across your Google Photos gallery, you can access them more easily with Pixel Screenshots.
In the future, if you need to remember something on your phone, you can simply take a screenshot, confident that it won’t get lost among the rest of your photos and videos. Head over to Google’s demo page to see this feature and see some other scenarios where it might be useful, including calling up restaurants and recipes.
How to use pixelated screenshots
Launch the Screenshots app for the first time and it should start analyzing all the screenshots you’ve collected so far (this processing is usually done when you’re not busy on your phone). At the most basic level, you can click on the arrow next to Screenshots to scroll through the captured images in chronological order.
You’ll see that each screenshot thumbnail has a small icon telling you which app it was taken in. Tap the screenshot itself to see what the AI was able to figure out about the image: you can see a description of its contents, for example, as well as text taken from the image (if you screenshot an Instagram post, the AI will tell you who posted it and how many likes from him).
There are a variety of options on these individual pages. Use the icons below the image to edit it, share it with someone, or associate it with a reminder on your phone. You can then add notes to individual screenshots or add screenshots to collections—hand-crafted groups of images that help you keep your library organized.
All the AI-generated information associated with an image can be used to search your screenshots. From the app’s home page, use the search field at the bottom to type or speak search terms and get results—you can search for locations, types of screenshots, text in screenshots, objects in screenshots, and more. It’s very similar to the search tool in Google Photos.
Finally, you can use the + (plus) button in the bottom right corner to import images other than actual screenshots—you can take photos directly with the camera or import images from Google Photos. Any imported images will receive the same AI processing as standard screenshots and can also be added to collections.