Pixel Buds Pro are getting a massive free upgrade

The next Pixel Buds Pro update is going to be the biggest one yet

Google Pixel Buds Pro review
(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)

Google's best true wireless earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro, have had a few free upgrades since they launched early last year; for example in March 2023 they got a new equaliser feature and some minor noise cancelling improvements. But reports say the next 2023 update is going to be the biggest yet.

According to 9to5Google's secret source, the next update will add Clear Calling. That's a really smart feature that filters out background noise and enhances people's voices so you can hear them more clearly in noisy environments such as in city streets or inside a shop. It doesn't cancel background noise completely but it turns it right down so you can hear the person or people much more clearly.

What else are Pixel Buds Pro getting in the summer 2023 update?

Another key upgrade coming in this update is Super Wide Band Speech, which increases the sampling quality of your voice to the full 32kHz, which is the maximum sampling rate 5G voice services support. That should make your voice sound that little bit clearer in calls provided your network provider supports it.

Last but not least, there are also some undisclosed "digital wellbeing" features. These will be hearing-related so are likely to be based around analysing the noise levels around you, but as yet we don't know what they'll use that analysis for.

There's no official release date for this update but it's likely to be months rather than weeks away: the equaliser update leaked in September 2022 but didn't actually roll out until spring 2023, and 9to5Google's source apparently believes a similar timetable is likely here.

Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series. When she’s not scribbling, she’s the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR (havrmusic.com).