The Pixel Buds Pro no longer let you ‘touch and hold’ to hear notifications

Google is taking away a Pixel Buds Pro feature that lets users touch and hold an earbud to hear unread notifications. In an update on Tuesday, Google confirmed that Assistant “will no longer read unread notifications when using the press Assistant feature.”

Additionally, Google says Assistant will stop automatically alerting you to unread notifications on the Pixel Buds, nor will it let you reply. Instead, Google says you can hear notifications by activating Assistant and saying “Read my notifications.”

The “touch and hold” gesture on the Pixel Buds Pro currently lets wearers switch between active noise cancelation and Transparency mode by default. Before this change, users could configure this gesture to have Assistant read notifications aloud.

Last week, Pixel Buds Pro users noticed that they weren’t able to use the “touch and hold” to hear their notifications, but Google didn’t confirm that it’s removing the feature until now.

The change, which Google says it’s making based on user feedback, comes about a week before the release of the Pixel Buds Pro 2. It seems like more tweaks are to come, as Google says it will “evaluate further changes to notifications.”