Most people don’t talk on the phone or get calls as much as they once did, but spam and unknown calls are rampant. Thankfully, Google is busy testing a new “Lookup” feature on Pixel phones, allowing users to search various apps and services to try and identify a number.
While we don’t know all the details yet, the new feature is labeled “Lookup” in the Pixel phone app and was first spotted by AssembleDebug on X. Following the March 2024 Pixel update and feature drop, the feature is available in Japan and a few other regions, suggesting it’ll roll out for more users in the near future.
So, how does it work? At first, you may think this is some sort of phonebook app integration like Truecaller, but it works a bit differently. When you receive a call from an unknown number, your first thought might be to copy/paste it into Google Search and try to figure out who called. Now, the lookup function is built-in.
When you tap on an unknown number in the Recents tab on your Pixel and then select the “Lookup” option, a list of apps on your phone that can search for the number will populate. If you don’t have any phonebook apps installed, you’ll get the option to use Google Search. From here, Google search will launch and scan the web to identify the unknown caller.
As you can imagine, this is a super useful feature that many will appreciate. However, remember that it’s not a full-fledged service, at least not yet. It’ll only find information from the caller if it’s already readily available online.
Over the years, Google has invested a lot of effort into phone calls, from letting the Assistant answer for you to call screening and more. With Lookup, users could potentially identify random callers or scams more easily.
Unfortunately, this helpful feature is still in the beta testing phase and is not available in the U.S., but we should learn more soon or during the annual Google I/O developer event next month.
Source: Toms Guide
