This App Brings the Power of Pixel Screenshots to Any Android Phone

Nov. 20, 2024

In the twilight of yesterday, while some Pixel 9 AI features like theMagic Editor’s Reimaginescared the AI out of me, apps likePixel Screenshotsmade my life so much easier. The fact that I could take a screenshot of something and get back to it easily without having to turn my gallery upside down is super convenient. However, the feature being limited to the Pixel 9 series was a bane for many, but guess what? You can now enjoy the Pixel Screenshots experience on absolutely any Android phone out there, thanks to thisnew app called PixelShot.

PixelShot is a new app by Indian Android developerMehul Kanzariya(first spotted by Android Authority) thatessentially mirrors Pixel 9’s Screenshots app. For those unaware, Pixel Screenshots analyzes all your screenshots using Google’s on-device Gemini Nano AI model.

Then, a simple text search can be used to look for the screenshot you vaguely remember. Based on your search, the app will show every relevant screenshot you have captured to date. Well, PixelShot isn’t that different either.

I tried the PixelShot app on my OnePlus 11R, and it worked flawlessly. You can do the exact same things as Google’s Screenshots app with PixelShot. It getsright to analyzing your screenshotsas soon as you download the app. The process takes some time; lesser if you leave the app open.

The PixelShot interface isn’t that different either and it reflects the inspiration, and I quite like it. It’s always good to see developers make apps that bring such useful features to a wider audience. The best part is that PixelShot iscompletely free and without pesky ads, at least for now.

Anyway, once the screenshots are analyzed, you can easily take to the search bar at the bottom and make your search. In my testing, the first thing I noticed was that it needs a fair amount of relevant text to identify and display screenshots. This is because, unlike the multimodal Gemini Nano model on the Pixel 9, PixelShot usesGoogle’s ML Kit SDK, which is a text extraction machine learning model that works on-device.

As a result, although Pixel Screenshots can identify the contents of an image to some extent and turn up results for searches like “vegetables” and sometimes, detailed searches like “people on a boat,” PixelShot can’t. Itsdependency on textaffects the AI-generated summariesthat it offers too. If an image doesn’t have any text, it won’t be able to generate anything. However, if you have screengrabbed your credentials or a password somewhere, you can easily get to it since those images will have some relevant text.

PixelShot creates these summaries by uploading the extracted text to a Replicate-hostedLlama 3 8B instructwhich generates the AI summaries alongside relevant titles. PixelShot isn’t as private as Pixel Screenshots due to its understandable constraints.

Don’t worry, privacy enthusiasts, yourscreenshots aren’t getting uploadedto the cloud. But, there is one worry. Thetext from your screenshots isdue to the AI model’s reliance on it. So, I would recommend you to not upload screenshots with personal information.

Meanwhile, the AI summaries and titles are stored locally on your device via a Room Database. Also, the app can’t analyze screenshots in the background like Pixel Screenshots. So, you will need to keep the app open for it to refresh and analyze the new additions.

You can add your screenshots to collections as well, just like Pixel Screenshots. However, you can’t directly capture or add images to the app or set reminders. However, it is off to a great start and one hell of an app. Kudos to Mehul for expanding the feature to more users and giving them a taste of Pixel Screenshots.

However, PixelShot won’t be free forever, as Mehul plans on adding in-app purchases and ads as the user base increases. API fees can be hefty, and it’s understandable why he plans on doing so.

With that said, give PixelShot a try right now. If you like it, do let us know in the comments below if it becomes one of your all-time favorite Android apps as it did for us!

Sagnik is a tech aficionado who can never say “no” to dipping his toes into unknown waters of tech or reviewing the latest gadgets. He is also a hardcore gamer, having played everything from Snake Xenzia to Dead Space Remake.