Google held Made by Google 2026 in New York, announcing SL2T, a real-time sign-language-to-text feature, and the Pixel Watch 5 with Health Guardian. Several new features are scheduled to roll out over time, and the launch timing for Pixel Tag was also announced.
The event introduced SL2T, developed by DeepMind to convert sign language into text. It uses a smartphone's front-facing camera to read hand and arm movements and convert them into sentences. The feature will become available on the Pixel 11 series through Gboard and Live Transcribe, initially supporting conversion into English, with plans for expansion. It will not incur an additional charge. Google also explained that it had established an advisory board and jointly produced an impact assessment report.
The Pixel Watch 5 will introduce a group of health-support features called Health Guardian. It will provide monthly summaries covering three trends: vascular health, metabolism and breathing during sleep. The feature does not currently produce new clinical measurements, instead estimating these trends from signals captured by existing sensors. The first summary is expected to arrive one month after users begin wearing the device, and the feature will be rolled out progressively to wearables including Fitbit Air.
Gemini Intelligence was positioned as a central theme of the event, with the company introducing a feature that handles multistep tasks without requiring users to switch between apps throughout the process. Rambler removes filler words and organizes the intended meaning into polished prose, while the location-based insights feature is being rolled out as a preview.
Camera features include Magic Capture and Camera Styles. Magic Capture analyzes approximately 400 frames with a single tap and extracts a photo taken at the optimal moment, while Camera Styles offers three options: Natural, Shadow and Vanilla. HiLight uses the rear LED on Pro models to indicate operating status.