Google’s headphones can change how you interact with strangers, forever

Two years in a row, and Google is telling us again, “guys, we’re not taking a backseat on this hardware hustle.”

We hear them loud and clear.

This is not about the now-waterproof Pixel 2’s camera already being rated by DXO Mark as the “best phone camera they’ve ever rated”. Or the Google Home. Or the Pixelbook.

We’re here for the Pixel Buds, Google’s new headphones. It’s a wireless pair that is touch-sensitive, and other cool stuff.

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“Help me speak Spanish”

You don’t have to just listen to your headphones. Now, they’ll listen to you. When you ask these Buds to help you speak in a particular language, it instantly starts translating whatever you say to that particular language, in real time.

And of course, if that person speaks to you in the language you don’t understand, the Buds translates it for you back in English. In real time.

Here’s why this is sooo important.

I travelled on a road trip across Nigeria, with a mouth for only three languages, English, Yoruba, and Food.

I reached Jimeta market in Adamawa State, hungry, and food was the only thing on my mind. So I went to this food stand to grab something.

“What do you have,” I asked the lady selling the food.

“njdbbdjbibinddoklhuid,” she replied so fluently.

I didn’t understand any Hausa, too bad. She didn’t understand any English either. I didn’t have the Pixel Buds, but thanks to some random guy who knew some English and saved my day.

Now, imagine how that conversation would have panned out if I had some Pixel Buds on:

Me to my Pixel Buds: “Help me speak Hausa”

Me: What do you have?

Pixel Buds (in collaboration with Google Assistant and my phone): me kike dashi?

Lady: Akwai Shinkafa, Tuwon Masara, Tuwwon Shinkafa, Semovita, Masa, Danwake, Burabisko. Kuma akwai Miyan Kuka, Taushe, Kubewa, jan miya.

Pixel Buds: We have, rice, Rice dough, Corn dough, Semovita, Masa, danwake, burabisko. We also have Kuka Soup, Okro, Taushe and Stew.

Me: Give me everything.

Pixel Buds: Bani duka

*Lady faints.*

Are there any Nigerian language options yet?

There are 40 languages available already, but as we’ve come to expect from these companies, no. There are no Nigerian Languages. At least not yet. But someone is trying to change this. Enter Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún.

“They usually don’t include African languages in these things,” he said when we talked about these new headphones.

Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún is linguist and Founder of Yorubaname.com, a dictionary of just about any Yoruba name you can think of.

There’s something else we don’t know,

And that is whether the device will ever officially reach Nigeria. Google’s focus in Nigeria has always been on the software side of things.

We reached out to the guys at Google for comments regarding this, and there wasn’t a response yet at the time of putting this together. Meanwhile, it can last 5 hours on full charge and the case has wireless charging that doubles as a powerbank for the headphones.

If you can find a way to get the device to reach Nigeria, then you’ll be able to get it for $159 from November 22. That's slightly over 57,000 in naira.