Google will release new wireless Pixel Buds next year for $179

Google has announced the Pixel Buds, a new set of wireless bluetooth earphones with Assistant integration. The earphones come with a housing that can charge them. The volume is automatically adjusted according to the surrounding noise.

The Assistant integration means users don’t have to take their smartphone out of their pocket, Google says. It is possible to use voice commands, for example, to turn on music, set a reminder or request a route. The earbuds have touch controls, which are activated when users put them in their ears.

According to Google, the Pixel Buds have a battery life of 5 hours. They can be charged in the supplied housing, which gives a total battery life of 24 hours. According to Google, the Pixel Buds remain connected to a smartphone or other device at a relatively long distance. Indoors that is ‘up to three rooms’ and outdoors the distance of a football field.

The wireless earphones are equipped with a spatial vent, a recess in the housing through which ambient noise can pass, so that wearers are not completely isolated. According to Google, the volume of the earphones can be automatically adjusted to the surrounding noise. Users would therefore not have to adjust the volume.

Google briefly showed the Pixel Buds and provided some details, but they won’t be released until spring 2020. In the United States, the wireless earphones have a suggested retail price of $179. A euro price is not yet known.

Two years ago, Google announced the first version of the Pixel Buds. Those bluetooth earphones were not completely wireless, but connected with each other with a wire. The new earphones will have the same name as that version.