Google's constantly introducing new features to its Pixel smartphones like Magic Eraser, Magic Editor, and even cinematic wallpapers generated by AI. These are just some examples of features that give Pixels their edge. With that said, it looks like Google's preparing a new safety feature that can transform your existing Pixel device or any Android phone for that matter into a dashcam.

9to5Google spotted the new feature in a new build of the Personal Safety that was uploaded to the Google Play Store. The news outlet states that Google might have accidentally rolled out a “dogfood” build of Personal Safety, which has allowed it to preview this unreleased feature. While it's unclear if this is the case, the important thing is that the news outlet was able to extract this new dashcam option from the app and explore its features.

As of now, the dashcam option resides in the "Be prepared" section in the Personal Safety app. You can begin a recording manually or set up the smartphone to activate the mode when connected to a Bluetooth device. According to the source, phone functionality remains intact when the dashcam is active, which is great considering that if you're normally just taking video with the camera, it usually stops the recording once you exit the app. Furthermore, it looks like the dashcam mode will even allow videos to continue recording even if the screen is off.

Now, while all of this sounds great, you must be wondering just how much space these video recordings will take, and you'll be happy to know that it's around “30MB per minute” with a maximum recording limit of up to 24 hours. Users can choose whether to record video and audio or just capture video. Even with an optimized file size, it looks like Google does provide the option to delete the recordings automatically after three days. In its current iteration, the camera can only make use of the primary camera sensor, which should be fine for most uses, as it should provide more than enough coverage out the front when driving about.

For the most part, this looks to be an impressive feature that could really be helpful for people that commute on a daily basis. While dashcams can be had for cheap, oftentimes, the quality isn't all that good and setup can make the vehicle look quite cluttered. This dashcam update could be a great solution, since most people already have a smartphone. But one thing that we have to remember is that while it's been found in the app, it doesn't always mean it going to make a public release.