Car crash detection may soon shed its Google Pixel exclusivity

A Personal Safety update hints at the feature's arrival on more devices

The Pixel 4 was full of firsts for Google, and aside from that Soli radar chip and all its Jedi-style antics, the phone introduced us to Google's automatic car crash detection. The idea may seem trivial to some, but it can legitimately be a lifesaver in a crash, alerting emergency services if the user's not able to do so. Sadly, the feature has remained a Pixel-exclusive almost three years after its debut, and is further limited to the Pixel 3 and later. That all may be set to change soon, though, as clues in Personal Safety's latest update hint at wider availability.

Car crash detection on Pixels is implemented as part of the Personal Safety app that ships with the phones. Some new strings have been spotted in its latest update (version 2022.05.25) by Mishaal Rahman and a few of these have multiple instances of "nonpixel" in their names — you already know what that indicates.

Rahman does note, though, that it's more likely that this feature won't simply be let loose across all non-Pixels en masse, so expect a few select devices to receive support first. That may be a consequence of how Google distributes this software currently, and OEMs might be tasked with working out the details of their own implementations.

In addition to possibly expanding access to crash detection, the new Personal Safety build also includes strings referencing crisis alerts on non-Pixels, suggesting that your Android phone might soon also pick up the ability to notify you about calamities like floods and earthquakes.