PSA: Google Pixel 8 series doesn't offer its full potential to buyers outside of US

During its launch events for Pixel smartphones, Google doubles down on showcasing a host of swanky new AI features and how they improve the user experience. These new features excite fans and users, but the excitement slowly fades away once you start reading the fine print. More on this later.

Earlier this year, we published an opinion article highlighting how Google Pixel devices are just regular stock Android smartphones outside the US. Many, like me, hoped that this would change with the Google Pixel 8 series. But sadly, that’s not the case.

I could have argued that the missing features might be worth the trade-off if Google priced its Pixel smartphones a bit more competitively in markets outside the US, but they’ve done just the opposite.

For instance, Google launched the Pixel 7 Pro in the UK for a starting price of £849 (roughly $1035). But with the Pixel 8 Pro, the company bumped up the price by a whopping £149 to £999 (roughly $1218). And this isn’t limited to the UK. Google launched the Pixel 7 Pro for INR 84,999 (roughly $1021) and its successor, the Pixel 8 Pro comes with an eye-watering starting price of INR 1,06,999 (roughly $1285).

This makes it hard to justify Google geo-restricting some of the exciting new features that it introduced with the Pixel 8 Pro.

If you purchased the Pixel 8 or the 8 Pro outside the USA, then you’ll be missing out on some exciting features like the new AI-enhanced Call Screen function that apparently is supposed to reduce the spam calls you get by 50%. Other than that, it also has a more “natural-sounding” voice to engage the caller.

Another great feature that’s restricted to the US and the English language specifically is Google Assistant’s ability to summarize webpages. Google showcased the Summarize feature in its official blog post titled ‘Meet Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, our newest phones‘. But, as I pointed out at the beginning of this article, the devil is in the details. Scrolling down and checking the ‘More information’ section of that blog post reveals that the feature is available in the US and with the English language only.

Apart from these, you still miss out on Gboard’s new feature to proofread, which once again, is limited to the US and the English language. Direct My Call, Hold for Me, and Wait Times are also not yet available in other markets or for use in the US with other languages. Even Google’s VPN service isn’t available everywhere.

Of course, these shortcomings haven’t gone unnoticed by users and fans alike. I came across a few comments on Reddit threads where it seemed clear that a majority of users are miffed with Google’s decision to keep a whole host of features locked to the US only.

Some even go as far as to claim that this is ‘false advertising’ and even suggest that this is ground for an official complaint with the ombudsman.

The only right way forward is for Google to ramp up its effort to release US and English exclusive features to more regions and languages. The company recently even announced its plans for making Pixel phones in India. So it’s high time that along with its hardware availability, Google needs to expand its features to other regions too.

Google hasn’t yet shared any roadmap for expanding these features to other markets nor has the company shared any details. So at this point in time, it’s anyone’s guess as to when we’ll see these features go live in other regions.

Here’s hoping that the Google Pixel 9 series breaks the cycle of region-locked features. That said, feel free to share your thoughts about Google’s decision to lock certain AI features to the US and with the English language exclusively.