A friendly reminder from Google: Clean your Pixel Buds every 120 hours of use!

You’ve probably already seen the numerous memes dealing with today’s – how to put it – lack of common sense in ordinary, everyday situations. The infamous “Open box before eating pizza” picture echoed the logical half-question, half-statement response meme caption “We are not going to make it as a species, are we?”

Google has decided to push the envelope a little further with a new reminder that’s going to ask you to clean your Pixel Buds. Folks over at 9to5Google have discovered a new feature that’s probably soon to be mass-released. They found it while inspecting lines of code in APK files (APK stands for Android Package Kit file format, used in applications on Android).

Allegedly, the hygiene reminders will pop up in the latest version of the Pixel Buds app (version 1.0.555017123), that’s soon to be found in the Play Store. Google Pixel phone users will most probably get the reminder as a system message.

The reminders will tell you that it’s “Time to clean your earbuds” and that cleaning “Improves audio quality, charging, and access to updates”.

While it’s hilarious that a big tech giant is spreading hygiene encouragements to its users, these reminders could be of practical use to some, because dirt from the ear canal can in fact lead to nonfunctional pairs of earbuds. For example, if the buds’ pins are too messy, they can’t make sufficient contact with the pins in the case and charging is not possible.

Tapping on the hygiene PSA is taking you to Google’s demo video on how to clean your earbuds and the charging case. Here it is:

The source is suggesting that Google isn’t relying on any “special techniques” in order to detect the level of dirt on the earbuds. Instead, the application will simply count how many total hours you’ve been using the mini ear speakers. After 120 hours of total usage (that’s 5 full days around the clock), it will remind you to clean your earbuds.