Three Pixel phone tricks that impress friends at any gathering

Google's Pixel phones come with a few built-in tools that are fun to show people. A writer at How-To Geek, who uses a Pixel 10 Pro, picked three: Now Playing, Pro Zoom and the Thermometer app. He says he ignored all three at first, then ended up using them constantly.

Naming songs

Now Playing identifies music playing nearby. The writer says it named the song about 8 times out of 10, even in clips of only about 10 seconds. It works in the background, so the lock screen is often enough. He also says it still names most songs with Wi-Fi and mobile data turned off. Now Playing now has its own app.

Zooming in far away

Pro Zoom is built for extreme zoom. The writer used it on the Moon at around 60x. Early shots were blurry, so he sat down, rested his arms on his knees and held his breath to keep the phone steady. A friend with a Galaxy S25 Ultra, which has a similar feature, could not match the results as consistently, he says.

The catch is that Pro Zoom uses generative AI to rebuild detail. That means the phone is partly guessing what is there. When he tried to read a sign on a distant building, it sometimes warped the letters into an unreadable mess. When it works, he compares it to compact digital binoculars.

Checking the temperature

The Thermometer app is meant to measure surface temperature. The writer says it also gives a good idea of air temperature, and that its readings were very close to those of a few proper air thermometers. On a warm day, it showed 28°C (82°F) outside a window and 22°C (72°F) indoors. He now uses it almost every day.

What is not clear

These are one person's experiences, not lab tests. The 8 out of 10 figure for Now Playing is his own estimate. The article text provided also cuts off before its end, and it does not say which other Pixel models have each feature.

• Now Playing: names songs, even offline, per the writer.
• Pro Zoom: far-off detail, but AI may garble text.
• Thermometer: built for surfaces, close to air readings in his checks.