Google makes your Pixel screenshots searchable with Recall-like AI feature

Google has announced Pixel Screenshots, a new AI-powered app for its Pixel 9 lineup that lets you save, organize, and surface information from screenshots. Pixel Screenshot uses Google’s private, on-device Gemini Nano AI model to analyze the content of an image and make it searchable.

During a demo at its Pixel launch event, Google showed how you can take a screenshot and then save it to a collection, like “gift ideas.” You can also search through all your other screenshots by typing in a keyword, like “bikes” or “shoes.” Pixel Screenshots will then pull up all relevant results.

Additionally, Pixel Screenshots can give you information about what’s inside an image. So, if you’re looking for the price of a shirt you screenshotted, you can type in “t-shirt price,” and Pixel Screenshots will extract the information from your screenshots to surface an answer. The app will only be available on Pixel 9 devices.

Pixel Screenshots sounds a bit like Recall, an upcoming Windows feature that Microsoft delayed over privacy concerns. But, unlike Recall, Pixel Screenshots doesn’t use AI to scan everything on your device — it’s limited to the screenshots you take manually. It actually seems pretty useful, and it’s nice that Google is giving users control over what exactly its AI can process.