Google can be considered a good company or not so much, but today I will give them a little praise. Google has just released – just on the newest Pixel smartphones so far – a so-called Call Screen assistant. What does it do? Well, Call Screen is basically an antispam filter for your telephone; it starts up whenever an unknown number calls, asking the user whether or not they want to answer the call. If not, CS’s answers it itself, upon which it informs the caller that they are talking to an assistant. If the caller is not discouraged by talking to the machine, CS will show the on-screen transcript of what are they saying.

Sounds good, right? Like an answering machine but with transcript and a chance for us to pick up the phone at any time during the ”conversation”. Of course Call Screen can also block unwanted numbers – floods of calls from your ex will not be an issue for the assistant. CS’ mechanics are based on the Google Duplex algorithm that Google presented a short time ago. As of now, Call Screen is only available on Google Pixel 3 and Pixel XL. Older Pixel models will receive it in the unspecified future; other Android smartphones are also in the plans.