Few smartphone manufacturers seem to think deeply about the "Phone" part of their product names Google, however, is not such a smartphone manufacturer, and the newly released Pixel 6 is further proof of that

In recent Pixel releases, Google Assistant has been active in taking appointments, answering robocalls, and handling hold times, and Pixel 6 does this trick by telling you how long it would take to talk to a live person and navigating through your phone book added to the bag of tricks

Both features are powered by Tensor, a Google-designed processor that debuted in the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro One of Google's main motivations for switching to its own silicon was to push machine learning and artificial intelligence to the forefront of more experiences That is exactly what is happening with the new phone features

In the course of reviewing the Google Pixel 6, we tested both calling features Here we take a closer look at how it works and some of the quirks we experienced with this powerful addition to the Pixel's feature set

Before we can reap the benefits of the Pixel 6's new phone features (called "Wait Times" and "Direct My Call"), we need to enable at least one of them in the Pixel's phone app settings In an ideal world, these features would be automatically turned on instead of forcing you to explore the settings, but my guess is that Google is treating this feature as opt-in for privacy reasons

These are three vertical buttons on the right side of the search bar at the top of the phone app Tap "Settings" from the drop-down menu that appears

Direct My Call will appear in the Assistance section of the menu, along with Hold, Junk Mail, and Call Screen Tap Direct My Call to activate it, another way for Google to save you time and effort when making a call

In the unlikely event that Direct My Call does not appear in the Assistance menu, you may need a software update for your phone app: long-press the Play Store icon and select "My Apps" from the Action menu You will see available updates on the Manage tab

Wait Times is a fairly simple feature added to the Phone app that does exactly what it says on the label Enter a toll-free number into the dialer and immediately after the last digit is displayed, a chart will appear showing the expected wait time for the current day The current time is highlighted and the current wait time is displayed just below the chart To make sure you don't miss this information, the wait time is also displayed on the green "call" button on the phone dialer

If today's wait time seems long, you can switch to another day of the week to see if there is a better time to call

Note that you can only enter toll-free numbers to call Wait Times Local phone numbers will not work For example, last week there was a power outage where I live, and I could not dial the local power company to see the wait times

Nor can I tap the number on a recent call to see the wait time You have to enter the number into the dialer This seems to be one area where Call Times could definitely be expanded

Direct My Call would be welcomed by anyone who has ever listened to a menu of options on an automated call and forgotten what happens when they press any number before the robot voice finishes lining up the menu Instead, Direct My Call transcribes what the voice is saying and highlights the options in a text block for easy reference There is also a convenient column of numbers at the bottom of the screen that can be tapped when the correct option is heard or read

It is impressive that Google's Tensor chip can do such transcription on the fly and is smart enough to isolate the various menu options

However, transcription is not always perfect The section that tells you what to do if you want a menu to be read out loud in Spanish (which it usually is) always falls into a loop when Google Assistant tries to transcribe a call Automated systems that respond to voice rather than touch-tone input can also confuse Direct My Call

However, menu items can often be transcribed accurately In addition, a block of text appears next to the assigned phone number, making it easy to see the options for navigating the phone network

Hold for Me was first introduced in last year's Pixel 5 and is back in the Pixel 6 As before, when you are put on hold, Google Assistant pops up and offers to wait on hold while you do something else When the hold time expires, the Assistant can alert you with a sound, vibration, or prompt

Google has also expanded caller ID for businesses to share information about the type of business that called That information will help Google better identify incoming calls

Call Screen was available in Japan, Canada, and the US and expanded to the UK, France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, Italy, and Spain in October Call Screen allows an assistant to answer a call from an unknown party and transcribe the Call Screen allows an assistant to answer a call from an unknown caller and transcribe the content of the call According to Google, the transcripts are more accurate thanks to the Tensor chip

Like Direct My Call, Hold for Me and Spam and Call Screen must be enabled in the phone app settings

No one would argue that the phone feature Google added to the Pixel 6 is an essential feature of the device However, the phone feature will show off Tensor's capabilities and will make calling on Google's new phone more efficient