Why only the pixel 10? What piece of hardware is the pixel 9 (one year old) missing?

I think specifically latest Pixels are often Google's beta testers. The enthusiasts owning them are happy to get features first and won't complain too much if it's rough around the edges. The phone is also not big enough revenue driver for them to be afraid that too many people would abandon it due to buggy new features

Then I assume they'll roll it out further

For better or worse, I do own Pixel 10

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bilal4hmed 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It says starting with pixel 10, so I assume itll roll out to the others after some time

https://security.googleblog.com/2025/11/android-quick-share-...

	▲	Maxious 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		From the linked security report in that post https://www.netspi.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/google-fea... it seems like they implemented something similar to https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop (which was also used to test interoperablity Also `we welcome the opportunity to work with Apple to enable “Contacts Only” mode in the future` doesn't make it sound like Apple actually helped implement this

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input_sh 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's just how they roll out features these days, in about 6 months it'll be on every Pixel and in about a year or so on every Android.

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evanjrowley 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The answer to your 2nd question might be Google's custom silicon: https://blog.google/products/pixel/tensor-g5-pixel-10/

The answer to your first question may simply be they want to sell more Pixel 10 phones.

The investment into custom silicon is more likely to pay off when new and exiting features are exclusive to the newer platform.

	▲	arghwhat 8 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That hardware is completely unrelated to such a simple feature. Something like AirDrop will only use fairly trivial crypto, which most likely ciphers with full acceleration available but even without it would work fine with plenty of performance headroom. Neither Apple nor Google is doing anything revolutionary with their silicon for such a standard compute task. It's really mostly minor tuning to get a more optimal part instead of an off-the-shelf chip catering to other uses too, with die area and power consumption "wasted" in your setup.
	▲	russianGuy83829 9 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		previous pixel phones also had custom Google silicon, just with some Samsung IP

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p0w3n3d 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yay if you pay additional fee you will maybe get Bluetooth file sending to PC

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dlcarrier 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

We've reached the point where a program that simply links file selection dialog APIs with network identity broadcast and file transfer APIs is so difficult to get working, that you can't expect it to be functional without the exact specified hardware and software version it was written for.

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gostsamo 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

We get the early worm. At the same time, as a screenreader user, I wished that I didn't miss the responsiveness and ease of use of my old Samsung Galaxy S9+. I fail to comprehend how Google managed to make a phone which is harder to use than something produced 7 generations ago.

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9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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