Pixel 4 feature drop adds new emoji, scheduled dark mode, faster Google Pay

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  The Pixel 4 is getting some new features. (Be warned that this is a gif-heavy gallery.) [credit: Google ]

Android's March Security Update is starting to roll out, and with it Google is announcing the second-ever "Feature Drop" for the Pixel 4. Feature Drops are a new update scheme that sees Google leverage its OS development skills into quarterly mini-updates for the Pixel line. This quarter the Pixel line is getting new emojis, the scheduled dark mode feature from Android 11, faster access to Google Pay, and several other features.

The Pixel 4 is currently on Android 10, which comes with Unicode Emoji 12.0. The Pixel 4 is getting an emoji update, but this isn't 2020's Unicode Emoji 13.0, which should be out along with Android 11. The Pixel is getting Emoji 12.1, which as the name suggests, this is a half-step between 12 and 13 that accelerates the release of some Emoji 13 features. As Emojipedia details, it includes 23 new gender-neutral emojis like "a gender-neutral fire fighter, astronaut, person in wheelchair, judge, and more. With skin-tone support included, the tally equals 138 additions." Additionally, there are new skin tone combinations for the "couple" emoji that weren't supported in Emoji 12. Google says there are 169 new emoji in this update.

The Android 11 Developer Preview introduced a scheduled dark mode that could turn on at sundown and off at sunrise, and that feature is being backported to the Pixel 4 on Android 10. There's also a new feature that goes in the complete opposite direction—a high-brightness mode. The Pixel 4 has a pretty undersized battery, and higher-brightness won't help, but sometimes you're outside and really just want to see the display.

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