We already know the Pixel 6 is coming, and we already know it'll be offered in two different models: a standard and "Pro" variant. We've seen the design, heard the top-level specs, know some of the new internals, and are continuing to learn more about its Android 12 software, but every now and then, we learn bits and pieces about the device thanks to Google themselves. Today's...."leak" is a casual namedrop of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 XL.

Earlier today, the 2021 Google for Games Developer Summit kicked off. At the event, Google unveiled new tools for Android game developers, the most important of which is Google Play's new "play as you download" feature for Android 12 devices. Another new feature exclusive to select Android 12 devices is the game dashboard, an overlay that provides access to key utilities and lets the user change the game's performance profile through new Game Mode APIs.

In the developer documentation for the new Game Mode API, Google describes "Game Mode interventions", which are game specific optimizations set by OEMs. Games can implement the Game Mode API behavior, propose Game Mode intervention settings to OEMs, or opt-out of Game Mode interventions entirely. Developers are encouraged to reach out to OEMs with their proposed Game Mode intervention values, and that includes Google themselves. Google has opened up a form for Game Mode intervention requests for Pixel devices, and one of the questions asks developers which devices the WindowManager backbuffer resize intervention settings should be applied to. As an example, Google lists the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 XL, two devices that haven't been released yet.

Google Pixel 6 namedrop

While this "leak" doesn't prove the name (many people think the larger model will be called the Pixel 6 "Pro"), it's still amusing to see Google acknowledge its next devices so casually. This could be a typo, of course, and whichever Googler wrote this form may have intended to write "Pixel 4" and "Pixel 4 XL" instead (there's no Pixel 5 XL, after all).