Google is reportedly working on a feature that optimizes the touchscreen of smartphones for different scenarios. Hopefully the firm has thought about the rain and the bathroom.

Every year, smartphone brands offer technical improvements to the touch screen. But until today, they still struggle to make their products easy to use in all situations. For example, when it rains, the touchscreen goes wrong when there are raindrops on the screen.

But the good news is that Google may have found the solution to keep its Pixel devices usable in all situations. For the moment, he has not yet made an official announcement. However, by digging into the beta version of Android 14 QPR3 (a quarterly update), the Android Police site discovered the existence of a new feature in the development phase which will be called “Adaptive touch”.

A text found in the OS code would also indicate what this feature will be used for: “the touch sensitivity will automatically adapt to your environment, your activities and your screen protector” . This appears to be an extension of the Google Pixel functionality, which already adapts the touchscreen settings when there is a screen protector. It is important to clarify that the leak discovered by Android Police does not indicate for what conditions the touch screen can be optimized. However, we can hope that rain is one of the scenarios imagined by Google engineers.

A Pixel 8 feature?

For the moment, we do not have any further details on this new Google feature. We do not know when it will be available and we do not know which models will be compatible. But the Android Police site thinks that this will probably be offered on the PIxel 8 series models, since these models already have touch optimization, but only for screen protectors.

Otherwise, we will also note that the functionality developed by Google is reminiscent of a technology presented in 2023 by the OnePlus brand and called Rain Water Touch. As its name suggests, this technology allows a smartphone to be usable in the rain. However, OnePlus simply published a video comparing one of its smartphones to an iPhone, without giving details.

In any case, the possibility of using a smartphone, even when drops of water are present on the touch screen, should complement the design of modern devices which, for the most part, have IP waterproof certification.

• Android Police discovers a feature in development in Google’s code that would adapt touch screen settings
• The idea is to optimize this screen for different scenarios
• And it’s possible that Google has developed a special setting for rain
• Similar technology, presented in 2023, was developed by OnePlus, for rain