Pixel Buds Pro 2 Update Adds Dynamic ANC, Tap to Mute — the Original Pixel Buds Pro Is Left Out
Google's firmware 6.144 update, rolling out from October 6-7, 2026, adds four real features to the Pixel Buds Pro 2 and 2a — but not the original Pixel Buds Pro.
Google started rolling out Pixel Buds firmware 6.144 on October 6, 2026, confirmed the next day, and it is a genuinely substantial update rather than the usual bug-fix release. Four real features ship in it, and which earbuds get which one depends on the exact model — version matching that matters here, since the lineup now spans three generations with different hardware.
The headline feature, Dynamic ANC, is exclusive to the Pixel Buds Pro 2 and does not reach the Pixel Buds 2a or the original 2022 Pixel Buds Pro. Active noise cancelling depends on a tight physical seal in the ear canal, and that seal routinely breaks when a wearer runs, chews, or talks on a call. Dynamic ANC has the Pro 2 detect that shift and re-adjust noise cancelling automatically, rather than leaving the wearer with degraded ANC until they manually reseat the earbud.
Three more features reach both the Pro 2 and the cheaper 2a. Tap to Mute lets either earbud mute or unmute the microphone on a call with a single tap — but only when paired with a Pixel phone running the Google Phone app or Google Meet, so the feature is narrower than a universal Bluetooth call control. Live Translate gets faster: a press-and-hold now launches Google Translate's listening mode directly, or a wearer can tell Gemini to "translate for me," with real-time translation across more than 70 languages and a conversation mode where the reply plays from the phone's speaker while the incoming translation goes straight to the earbuds. The fourth feature, auto-pause for sleep, works only paired with a Pixel Watch in Bedtime mode: when the watch detects sleep, the earbuds pause audio, disable touch controls and turn off voice-assistant activation on their own.
The original Pixel Buds Pro, which launched in 2022, is excluded from the entire update. Google has confirmed directly that these features are limited to the Pixel Buds Pro 2 and Pixel Buds 2a — not a staggered rollout that will eventually reach the older model, according to the company's own statement reported alongside the update.
The update is rolling out gradually rather than to every device at once, the normal pattern for Pixel Buds firmware. Owners can check whether it has reached their earbuds by opening the Pixel Buds app and going to More settings, then Firmware update.
For anyone deciding between the two current models, Dynamic ANC is now a real functional gap between them, not just a price difference: the Pro 2 is the one Google is actively building out with activity-aware noise cancelling, while the 2a keeps pace only on the software features that don't depend on the Pro 2's extra hardware.
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