Google’s Pixel 4 phones could wait on hold for you

Google’s next Pixel phones might come with another major benefit: you’ll never have to listen to annoying hold music again. 

That’s according to a recent report in 9to5Google, which reports Google is readying a new feature that will allow its Assistant to wait on hold for you.

Here’s how it works, according to the “reliable source” that spoke with publication: when you’re placed on hold, you can tap a button to let Google Assistant know you want it to take over the call. You can then “take your attention away from the call, and Google Assistant will let you know when there’s an actual human back on the other end of the call.”

It’s not clear when such a feature might launch. Google’s Pixel 4, which will also have a new face unlock and gesture recognition features, is expected to launch later this year. But it sounds like the new Google Assistant feature might not be ready for the phone’s initial launch, and could be unveiled at a later date. 

Google has been experimenting with several features meant to make the kind of routine phone calls where you typically get placed on hold easier. The company previously introduced Duplex, which lets Google Assistant book restaurant appointments and reservations on your behalf, and a call-screening feature, which allows Google Assistant to find out who is calling before you pick up the phone.

Both of those features were first shown off at Google’s I/O developer conference, which takes place each spring. So it’s possible the company could again wait for the annual software event to show off the new capability for its Assistant.

Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Though we’re still at least a month out from the launch of the Pixel 4, we do already have quite a few details on the handset. The company shared images of the back side of the phone, which will have a larger camera bump, and revealed in a blog post that the phone will be the first to take advantage of Google’s radar-based gesture recognition tech, which will enable users to control the phone without actually needing to hold the phone.