Eight New Features Coming to Pixel Drop in June 2025
Google is releasing the final stable version of Android 16 today , and is also releasing a new Pixel Drop for June 2025. These drops bring exclusive features to Pixel phones and tablets, in addition to the shared Android codebase that’s available to all Android phone makers, including Samsung, Nothing, Sony, and Motorola.
There are a few new features to talk about this time around. They should roll out automatically to all currently supported Pixel phones and tablets in the coming days — so back to the Pixel 6 — but you can also check manually via System > Software Updates in Settings on your device.
1. Pixel VIPs
Your Pixel VIPs are the most important contacts on your device, and now they’re getting their own dedicated widget as a spinoff of the Contacts app. This widget lets you see recent messages and calls from these people across messaging apps, including WhatsApp, as well as more detailed information about them (including their birthdays and milestone anniversaries).
These special VIPs get extra permission to bypass Do Not Disturb mode on your Pixel, which should ensure you don’t miss anything important when notifications are turned off. If you’re currently sharing your location with these Very Important Contacts, that data will also appear in the widget, but all of that information is stored locally on your device.
2. Custom Stickers in Gboard
Stickers created with generative AI are coming to the default Pixel keyboard, Gboard, with the latest Pixel Drop. With Pixel Studio, you can create stickers of just about anything: an excited, jelly-like avocado, a sad starfish in sunglasses, and shiny blue sneakers are just some of the examples Google gives. And yes, it does look a lot like Genmoji on the iPhone .
As you might have guessed from the mention of Pixel Studio, this will only work if you have a Pixel 9 phone, as your device requires some AI power to create graphics without going to the cloud. If you have a compatible device, the new feature will be accessible via a button above any text input field when Gboard is enabled.
3. Expressive signatures
If you use Live Captions on your Android device , you know that it can be a useful way to get live on-screen captions for video and audio content, even if they weren’t included in the source file or stream. Expressive Captions adds more emotion to this feature, so you’ll see labels like “whisper” or “yawn” next to the words themselves.
If words are stretched out — like “goooooooal!” — that should show up, too. This feature isn’t exactly new, as it was announced last month for Android 15 devices: From what I can tell from Google’s announcement, it looks like Pixel Drop may introduce more of these expressions, or perhaps make them more widely available.
4. New accessibility features
The new Pixel Drop includes a few small new features worth mentioning, including improved support for hearing aids with LE audio features: You can now access presets and volume controls from a dedicated panel on your phone, as long as it’s a Pixel 9 or newer phone running Android 16 (rolling out at the same time as this update).
Then there were improvements to the Magnifier app (exclusive to Pixel phones), which now includes real-time search. You can type in what you’re looking for (like something in a menu), then move your phone’s camera around, and matches will be highlighted in real time, accompanied by a little vibration. No longer do you have to take a photo first and then search.
5. Battery status indicator
If you have a Google Pixel 8a or newer, this latest version of the Pixel Drop brings with it the new battery status indicator screen we first learned about in April. It shows details of the remaining battery capacity based on charging and usage patterns, and the feature should help you use your battery more efficiently (and show you when it needs replacing).
6. Improve your photography skills
The default Camera app for Pixel phones and tablets has an interesting new feature: If you tap the new question mark icon that appears in the corner of the Camera screen, you’ll get a visual guide to what each camera mode does, as well as some instructions on how to use it. The idea is to “help you get the most out of your Pixel camera,” Google says.
7. AI-powered editing in Google Photos
In its June 2025 Pixel Drop announcement, Google again mentioned the improved AI editing tools coming to Google Photos, which it also announced last month — for Android and iOS devices. That update is still coming soon and doesn’t appear to be a Pixel exclusive, but it’s worth noting that Google mentioned it again in its latest blog post.
8. Expanded availability of functions
Finally, a couple of accessibility notes: The Pixel Satellite SOS feature, which lets you get help when you’re out of Wi-Fi and cellular range, is expanding to Australia, and the exclusive Pixel Recorder app is adding French and German to the list of languages it can handle when transcribing and summarizing audio conversations.