The Google Pixel Buds Pro could lose one of its key features

Key Takeaways

• The Google Pixel Buds Pro might remove the touch-and-hold gesture for reading notifications.
• Some users are being asked to say “read notifications” to have messages read out to them.
• The change comes weeks ahead of the Pixel Buds Pro 2’s availability, which will feature extensive Google Gemini capabilities.

The Google Pixel Buds Pro struck all the right chords after debuting in 2022 and continues to find a place among our favorite wireless earbuds. Much like most competitive ANC earbuds you will find on the market, the Pixel Buds Pro also offer a variety of gestures and user-customizable controls, with touch-and-hold being one of them. In addition to switching between ANC and Transparency mode, this gesture can also be configured to read out phone notifications using Google Assistant. But it looks like Google is on the verge of removing this functionality from the Pixel Buds Pro.

As per a Pixel Buds Pro user on Reddit, activating the touch-and-hold gesture returned a message saying, “Touch and hold won’t read notifications anymore,” directing them to say “read notifications” to have any notifications read back. So from quietly getting notifications read out on the earbuds with the touch-and-hold gesture, users will now need to vocalize the two-word command to have notifications read back to them.

The issue doesn’t appear to be isolated, as another Reddit user explained a couple of days ago. They also noted the ridiculousness of the situation wherein users must say something out loud when the same function was previously achievable with a simple and quiet gesture.

It’s a feature, not a bug

Given that Google is directing Pixel Buds Pro owners to an alternative rather than simply removing the feature suggests that this is a deliberate move on the company’s part, and not a bug, as 9to5Google rightly points out. But it doesn’t appear to be widely rolling out right now, so some Pixel Buds Pro users should be able to use this functionality over the coming days.

All this comes just under two weeks before the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will reach shelves (stay tuned for our review). We know the second-gen Pixel Buds Pro will rely heavily on Gemini’s capabilities, with some of the features announced including Gemini Live support for a “mobile conversational experience.” Other touted improvements on the Pixel Buds Pro 2 include improved battery life and ANC that’s twice as good as the predecessor, thanks to the brand-new Tensor A1 chip.