Every hardware event has that one announcement that isn’t exactly a breakthrough, but rather a rehash of an existing product or service. As far as Google’s latest launch is concerned, that product is the Pixel Buds Pro 2 in a new finish.
Alongside a stacked lineup of phones and gadgets, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 quietly picked up a fifth color option today, and it’s easily the most seasonally appropriate one yet.
What new features do the Pixel Buds Pro 2 get?
Called Olive, the shade follows the same two-tone playbook Google has used since the Buds Pro 2 debuted. A colored earbud cap up top with Google’s ‘G’ logo, paired with a black lower body and stem. The charging case stays plain white on the outside and black on the inside.
The new colorway joins Porcelain, Peony, Hazel, and last year’s Moonstone, leaning toward muted and earthy tones rather than anything bright or vibrant. The earbuds themselves aren’t getting a hardware refresh, but Google is using the moment to push out a few software upgrades too.
For instance, a new Dynamic ANC feature adjusts noise cancellation on the fly if your earbud seal shifts, so a loose fit doesn’t tank your noise cancellation mid-listen. Silent Seal and battery life carry over as is. The buds also let you tweak settings like bass level just by saying “Hey Google, turn up the bass” via Gemini.
And if you own a Pixel Watch, a new sleep sync feature detects when you’ve dozed off and automatically pauses your music, disables touch controls, and silences notifications so you can actually stay asleep.
What else did Google announce today?
The new Olive finish matches the new Olive Pixel 11 Pro variant. So, anyone picking up the Olive Pixel 11 Pro has a pair of earbuds to match.
Apart from the earbuds, Google unveiled the Pixel 11 lineup in full, four phones running a new Tensor G6 chip, alongside the Pixel Watch 5, which adds a Health Guardian suite capable of flagging Blood Pressure and Insulin Resistance Trends starting in September.
The company also jumped into the personal item tracking market with the Pixel Tag. It’s a notably thin tracker built around a new Bluetooth ranging trick called Channel Sounding.
This is not the first time that Google has color-matched its earbuds with a Pixel phone. Moonstone did the same for the Pixel 10 Pro, and Berry did it for the Pixel 10a.
