The best property advantages of Pixel outside the camera are the unique software features, like the recorder, which (as the name suggests) records audio and transcribes almost in real time. Last year, the first signs of backups based on Google Drive were detected. At the time, the feature bits that could be enabled pointed to a new website recorder.google.com, which did not exist. Well, the site is live now and is promising the other half of the currently non-functional feature.
The site is active, but the backups themselves are not yet active.
The site is currently just a landing page, but for a brief moment while loading, you can see other UI elements at the top and bottom of the screen. At the top, you can see a text entry field clearly labeled “search this recording” to allow you to examine the content of a transcript. At the bottom are the playback and volume controls, forward and backward jumps of five and ten seconds (respectively, a progress bar and what may be a binary toggle of some kind to the left.
The new mobile web recorder interface.
We would be guessing, but I assume that a list view of some kind to browse the recordings and view the content of the transcript will be displayed in the center. This unknown switch can control something about the transcript view, as it seems to indicate a switch between column types, or it can adjust other aspects of the interface – who knows.
A close-up of the UI elements visible for a split second as the page loads.
The details behind the new backup mechanism are not expressed by the website, which merely states that “the backup recordings of the Recorder application on your Google Pixel will appear here”. However, many of the details were previously deduced from an APK Teardown.
When you arrive, the feature will allow you to back up your recordings from the Recorder to Google Drive with options like whether or not to allow using mobile data. When deleting recordings, you will be asked whether or not they should also be excluded from your backups and other synchronized devices. There is even a backup indicator in the account switcher, if the details haven’t changed since the feature was first demonstrated (all included in the screenshots below).
Images: XDA-Developers
Currently, you can manually back up recordings yourself, sharing them with a destination like Google Drive, but it’s hardly convenient and it’s definitely not automatic.
The new site invites you to learn more about the Recorder on the old resource promotion site, but it has not yet been updated to mention the backup feature.
With less than a week to go until March 1st (the first Monday of the new month, when Pixel updates usually arrive), and with a feature drop update expected this time around, I tightly I suspect the feature will be formally announced as part of Google’s March update for Pixels next week. Previously, Recorder chose to integrate Assistant as part of last June’s drop in resources.