The Adaptive Sound feature that Google debuted last year on the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G with a feature drop is starting to appear in the new Pixel 6 series devices. According to the reports, the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro phones have started showing the Adaptive Sound feature in the last 2-3 days. The feature aims to dynamically improve the speaker performance based on your environment by using the phone’s microphone as a feedback mechanism. While this was earlier available only in the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G, it has now started to come to the newly-launched Pixel 6 series as well.
It looks like the speakers in the Pixel 6 series also needed Adaptive Sound, and Google decided to add it silently. The feature has been pushed quite recently, two to three days ago, and thanks to Mishaal Rahman for spotting it in the latest Google phones. To those of you who don’t know what Adaptive Sound is and what it does, here is how the feature works:
How Adaptive Sound in Pixel Phones Works
As mentioned before, Adaptive Sound uses the phone’s microphone to dynamically improve its speaker performance. In simple words, the Adaptive Sound feature turns on the microphones on your Pixel phone and, depending on your surroundings, it adjusts the audio equalizer settings. The feature works well on lower levels of volume, but it does very little to aid the sound quality when you reach the higher volume levels that the Pixel 6 is capable of. So Adaptive Sound, when using higher volume levels, is barely noticeable.
Since this feature uses your phone’s microphone to listen to your surroundings, you might be worried about Google listening in on your secrets. But the search giant promises that the audio is “processed locally and never leaves your device.” According to Google, the audio gets deleted shortly after being recorded, so it does not reach Google servers.
