That Pixel Buds Pro feature that just vanished? It's not coming back

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

With the Pixel Buds Pro 2 hitting retailers in just a few days time, users of the Pixel Buds Pro have discovered a significant change to the way the earbuds handle notifications – and Google has now confirmed that the change is permanent.

The change applies to the touch-and-hold feature of both the first and second generation Pixel Buds Pro. And it's interesting when you consider that Apple has just added hands and voice-free notification handling to its AirPods, because Google has basically just taken one of its own silent features away.

So what's going on?

Why Google has changed the Pixel Buds Pro's Touch and Hold feature

Touch and Hold enabled Pixel Buds Pro to get the Google Assistant to read out notifications without having to give the chatbot a verbal command. But just over a week ago, Pixel Buds Pro owners started posting to Reddit about the feature suddenly stopping. Instead of the usual notifications, Touch and Hold responded with "Touch and Hold won't read notifications any more" and asked the users to say "read notifications" instead.

Calls to Google support didn't shed any light, because the support techs weren't aware of any change. But Google has now confirmed that the option has indeed been changed – but it's okay, because it's gone to live on a farm where it can play all day with Google Reader, the Goo.gl URL shortener, Google Podcasts and YouTube Stories.

It seems that the feature has indeed ceased to be, and that more changes may be coming. As spotted by 9to5Google, Google has now updated its Community pages with a notice explaining the change. "Based on your feedback, we are here to announce that we will be making the following changes to your Google Assistant notifications on Pixel Buds while we evaluate further changes to notifications," Google says. "Assistant will no longer read unread notifications when using the press Assistant feature. Assistant will also no longer read unread notifications automatically and allow you to reply."

The change is likely to be part of Google's move towards Gemini, its AI assistant; as we said in our Pixel Buds Pro 2 hands-on, "Similar to how Google Gemini is unashamedly front-and-center within its latest phones, you'll be able to use Gemini on Pixel Buds Pro 2, and it will effectively be the smart assistant here."

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.