That Pixel Buds Pro feature that just vanished? It's not coming back

With the Pixel Buds Pro 2 hitting retailers in just a few days time, users of the Pixel Buds Pro have discovered a significant change to the way the earbuds handle notifications – and Google has now confirmed that the change is permanent.

The change applies to the touch-and-hold feature of both the first and second generation Pixel Buds Pro. And it's interesting when you consider that Apple has just added hands and voice-free notification handling to its AirPods, because Google has basically just taken one of its own silent features away.

So what's going on?

Why Google has changed the Pixel Buds Pro's Touch and Hold feature

Touch and Hold enabled Pixel Buds Pro to get the Google Assistant to read out notifications without having to give the chatbot a verbal command. But just over a week ago, Pixel Buds Pro owners started posting to Reddit about ...