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Pixel Visual Core enabled for third-party apps in Pixel 2 February update
August 17, 2025
Following thePixel 2 and Pixel 2 XLannouncement in October, Google also revealed that both smartphones featured a dormant chipset calledPixel Visual Core. The company enabled it for developers inlate November, but everyone else was left waiting to take advantage of the chip’s image-enhancing abilities.
Now,Google is enabling Pixel Visual Corefor all Pixel 2 devices in the February 2018 Android security patch.
As notedin our detailed overview, Pixel Visual Core is Google’s very first in-house chipset, designed to compile HDR+ imagesfivetimes faster than an application processor. It can also handle more complex imaging and machine learning tasks related to the camera. It’s built to do the heavy-lifting image processing while using less power, which will in turn save battery. This means the phone can use the additional computing power to improve images by running Google’s HDR+ algorithm.
What does that mean to the end user? Your Pixel 2 photos will be brighter, clearer, and more detailed. Check out some samples below:
That’s not all — Google is also adding newAR Stickersto Pixel devices starting this week. The new winter sports-themed stickers will allow you to add skiers, ice skaters, hockey players, and more to your photos and videos.
The February Android security update will begin rolling out to devices in the coming days. If you’re itching to try it out now, you can downloadfactory imagesandOTA filesat the links below:
you may find all the changes Google included in these updates in theAndroidandPixel/Nexus Security Bulletins.
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