Google's Pixel phones are picking up new photography skills and also getting smarter, thanks to new features rolled out by Google as part of a June update. The update also includes changes promised at last month's Google I/O event aimed at enhancing the phone's privacy features.

For photographers, the centerpiece of June's Pixel feature drop would be an expansion of the Google phone's astrophotography feature, introduced in 2019 with the Pixel 4, which allows users to take clearer photos of the night sky. This latest update will also allow users to create videos of stars moving across the sky during the same exposure.

According to Google, when a photo is taken with Night Sight, the Pixel saves both a still image and a video to the Camera Roll. The latest Google Pixel Tips app update included code showing improvements to astrophotography. This feature is available on Pixel 4 and later models.

As for improving smarts, Google has added a feature to its digital well-being tools that reduces the likelihood of running into someone or something while looking at your phone's screen as you move around. this new feature, dubbed Heads Up, allows you to walk Pixel will detect when you are walking and send you periodic reminders to look up from the screen. Whether you listen or not is up to you.

Other improvements to the smarts of Pixel phones include the ability to answer or reject calls with voice commands to Google Assistant. (Gboard has been improved to allow users to copy text containing contact information such as phone numbers, email addresses, and URLs, with a snippet displayed on the clipboard for easy pasting into other apps.

At Google I/O, the software giant announced that it would be bringing a locked folder feature to Google Photos that would allow you to save images you don't want included in a shared album. According to Google, the feature is now live.

In addition, the Pixel's reduced functionality has made the car collision detection feature, which was already available in the US, UK, and Australia, available in Spain, Ireland, and Singapore. The call screening feature is now available in Japan, and Google's recorder app now supports more English dialects. To celebrate Pride Month, Google added wallpaper and ringtones.

Google's latest addition came just before the start of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, which previewed new features coming in this year's iOS 15 update. It is not too ironic to suggest that this timing is not a coincidence. Think of this as Google's way of throwing down a marker to show that its phones are still adding features to compete with Apple's iPhone.