If you are a Google Pixel phone owner, you may have already used the Phone app’s Call Screen feature. It allows Google Assistant to answer your call on your behalf to check who is calling and why. Google updated the Call Screen with contextual replies late last year. Now, it seems the company is readying ‘AI Replies’ for the Call Screen in the Pixel Phone app.
Google is readying contextual ‘AI Replies’ for the Call Screen feature in the Pixel Phone app
Currently, contextual Call Screen replies let you easily respond to a caller without having to answer the call. For example, if you receive a call for an appointment, Google suggests a related response. In the case of appointment confirmation, Google will show responses like “Confirm” or “Cancel appointment.”
In yesterday’s APK teardown report, folks over at 9to5Google mentioned that they found some code strings related to AI Replies in the latest beta version 153 of the Phone app. The outlet notes that the existing Call Screen feature is named “dobby.” However, the recently discovered code strings include wordings like “dobby_AI” and “dobby_LLM.”
The publication also notes that Google might use Gemini Nano to power the AI Replies for the Call Screen. Right after this discovery, Android Authority contributor Assemble Debug posted a screenshot on X saying that Google is indeed working on AI Replies for the Call Screen feature.
You’ll be able to enable or disable AI Replies whenever available
As you can see in the screenshot below, the description of the AI Replies clearly mentions its purpose. It reads, “Call Assist suggests new AI-powered smart replies based on the caller’s Call Screen responses.” Since there’s a toggle switch, it’s safe to assume that a user can enable or disable AI Replies whenever it is available.
Worth noting that there’s no word on how different the response will be compared to what we see today in the Call Screen feature. Moreover, we don’t know when Google plans to roll out this AI feature to the masses.
