Google quietly announced Android 7.1 alongside its new Pixel phones yesterday, but it wasn't immediately clear which of the new Android features were specific to Google's phones and which would be available to other Android phones.

The full list of Pixel-specific enhancements is a mix of hardware-specific stuff and Google's software and services:

Pixel Launcher—swipe up for all apps, new Search Box, date/weather header on home

Google Assistant

Unlimited original quality photo/video backup to Google Photos

Smart Storage—when storage is full, automatically removes old backed up photos/videos

Phone/Chat support (new support tab in settings), screen-share functionality

Quick switch adapter for wired setup from Android or iPhone

Pixel Camera: Electronic Image Stabilization (“video stabilization”) 2.0 Pro Features White Balance Presets Exposure Compensation AE/AF Locking Viewfinder grid modes HW-accelerated (on Qualcomm Hexagon coprocessor) HDR+ image processing Smartburst

Sensor Hub processor with tightly integrated sensors (accel, gyro, mag) + connectivity (Wi-Fi, Cell, GPS)

Cosmetic Solid navbar icons with home affordance for Assistant SysUI accent color theming Wallpaper picker with new wallpapers and sounds New setup look and feel Dynamic calendar date icon



Some of these things may eventually make it to other Android phones—the Pixel launcher, the Google Assistant, and some of the UI stuff. Others, like the phone and chat support features and the unlimited storage of photos and video, could come to other phones but are more likely to remain Google-exclusive to add value to the Pixels.

The list of features available to other phones, including older Nexus and Pixel devices that eventually get Android 7.1, is a smaller but still respectable collection of improvements. It's a minor update in the vein of Android 4.3 or 5.1, and it's probably representative of what we can expect from Android's quarterly updates going forward.

Night Light (this shifts the color temperature of your screen a la iOS' Night Shift mode or f.lux)

Touch/display performance improvements

Moves (Fingerprint swipe-down gesture—opt-in)

Seamless A/B system updates

Daydream VR mode

Developer features: App shortcuts/shortcut manager APIs Circular app icons support Keyboard image insertion Fingerprint sensor gesture to open/close notification shade Manual storage manager Intent for apps Improved VR thread scheduling Enhanced wallpaper metadata Multi-endpoint call support Support for various MNO requirements PCDMA voice privacy property Source type support for Visual Voicemail Carrier config options for managing video telephony

Manual storage manager - identifies apps and files and apps using storage

Android Police reports that Android 7.1 will be released as a developer preview for some older Nexus and Pixel devices by the end of the year, but we don't know which ones just yet—Android 7.0 runs on the Nexus 6P, 5X, 6, and 9 as well as the Nexus Player and Pixel C, but Google technically doesn't have to keep providing version updates to the Nexus 6 or 9 after this month. It's not clear why the software that will ship on the Pixel phones is still only "beta" quality when running on any other phone, and it's too bad that Google's older devices won't get the update as promptly as they have in the past, but it's going to happen eventually.

We also have no idea when Android 7.1 will be available to any of Google's hardware partners, many of which are still getting around to announcing their update plans for 7.0. I'm still hoping that Google has an answer to the update question that it just isn't ready to tell us yet, especially since Android updates are going to be coming out more frequently than ever. At least for now, however, the only way to make sure you've always got the newest and best software is to shell out $650 or more for a brand-new phone directly from Google.