Copyright Android Police
No technology is perfect when it first launches, particularly when it's powered by AI. Google's revamped search platform, for example, infamously went through some growing pains in the early stages, with AI Overviews encouraging users to eat rocks to lose weight and add glue to cheese for the perfect homemade pizza. That's why I wasn't terribly surprised when it turned out the new Magic Cue feature on the Pixel 10 Pro wasn't nearly as impressive as advertised after first acquiring the phone. However, after a couple of months, I've noticed a few Magic Cues popping up, and even better, they're actually quite helpful. I know, I was surprised too. Magic Cue actually magically cued me A glimpse at how good the feature could be Let me paint the picture. I'd been running errands all day, driving around the north side of Chicago on a Saturday, which meant I was consistently in bumper-to-bumper traffic with some of the most unhinged drivers in the country. On top of that, I'm texting with one of my colleagues, trying to get everything organized for an event we're hosting later that night. Yes, I know, texting and driving is illegal, but when you're in as much traffic as I was, it's not nearly as bad as those commercials would have you believe. Still, I was frazzled, especially when my colleague texted me to ask if I could forward her the phone number for Evan (one of our colleagues). Texting and driving is one thing, but the process of searching for a contact, copying the number, finding the text conversation again, and pasting the number just felt like a step too far. That's when it happened. As soon as I opened the text message, I was greeted with a Magic Cue that would make it all worth it. Just above the text bar was a lineup of small text bubbles with the patented Magic Cue symbol next to the contact card of every Evan on my phone. The Evan I needed wasn't in the first five options, but I was able to easily scroll to the right to find the Evan in question, press the button, and voila! I had shared the number in a literal instant. Suffice to say, I had been magically cued. This was everything the feature promised and more, making it easy to perform basic tasks in various Google apps based on information that is readily available through the phone. Unfortunately, the excitement wore off faster than I'd like to admit. Magic Cue still has a long way to go Inconsistency and inaccuracies are a problem When the above incident occurred, I was elated that Magic Cue had finally arrived. I was ready to start seeing more readily available information, simple app prompts, and an overall better experience on my Pixel 10 Pro thanks to the AI-powered feature that everyone was so excited about. Tragically, that was not the case. While this one instance was pretty incredible, Magic Cue has been largely absent since, rarely providing prompts, even when scenarios arrive that are right out of the Google announcement about the feature. Even worse, I couldn't even get the Pixel 10 Pro to Magic Cue me when I was specifically trying to get it to work for screenshots in this article. I used my wife's phone to send the exact message I received from my colleague about Evan's number, and I couldn't get it to provide the long list of contact cards again. All I got was a single Evan popping up (the wrong Evan) and the usual canned responses provided by Google Messages. I decided to start testing the waters again to see if any other Magic Cue features had improved, and again, I was sorely disappointed. Asking for addresses for dinner reservations didn't get Magic Cue to provide anything, even when unnaturally prompted with the right information to get it done. Discussing the need for payment didn't get Magic Cue to offer the Venmo app instantly, even when specifically including the word "Venmo" in the message. It just didn't work the way you would want it to. Patience is a virtue And we're going to need it for Magic Cue To be fair, the Magic Cue feature has existed for only two months, which is exactly a long time when you consider that existing AI models are only now becoming good enough to operate within businesses, and it's been more than three years since the launch of ChatGPT. A bit of patience will be key in evaluating Magic Cue in the long run, particularly because it seems like the feature is at least moving in the right direction. After all, there were some bright spots, like Magic Cue creating an event in Google Calendar when prompted that actually includes the information discussed, rather than just a blank event that you need to fill in. All that to say, Magic Cue isn't there yet. But if we give it a bit of time and celebrate its behind-the-scenes victories, we could end up with a great feature that saves a lot of time.
