Uhh - these images aren't from Google. These are examples from The Verge.
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Google's Upcoming 'Night Sight' Mode for Pixel Phones Captures Remarkable Low-Light Photos
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I doubt this is big step forward in technology. It may well be simply playing with shutter/aperture plus maybe a noise control algorithm. I use the app NightCap on my iPhone 8 (and 6 before it) and get very good results, similar to this. The good move by Google probably is less technical amazingness than simply incorporating this setting suite into the native camera app. There’s nothing revolutionary about the Pixel’s hardware. And since a third party low light photo app took impressive low light photos on a 6 with its f2.2 camera, I have zero doubt that current models with their max f1.8 would be equally impressive if Apple chose to implement this. And they should, because it’s a nice ability to have natively.
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Who would use this more than 2x a year other than your local friendly cia / kgb agents? Raise your hand. C’mon now folks... 
It isn’t a long exposure, the phone takes a bunch of images at normal exposure and merges them together. If you look at the originals (instead of the crappy screenshots MacRumors has been posting lately) the results are crisp and detailed with little noise; really amazing work on Google’s part. It blows the iPhone XS out of the water, and I’m a long-time Apple user.
That being said, the example Google gives of Central Park is horrendous...it looks totally fake.
So don’t use this mode, or dial it back in post. You would prefer a dark, noisy pic with no detail that can’t be edited?
There's nothing new here, though. Take any camera and keep the shutter open long enough and it will "artificially" brighten the image as more light accumulates on the film/sensor. The human eye is amazing in low light, so a sensor generally needs some more light exposure just to get to the level of what you can see in person. Of course you can go further (like that first Central Park image above) and make it look like a weirdly daylit photo if you want. The light situation at night in NYC is already bonkers with white balance, though, so no wonder that image looks so weird.
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I don't have a Pickle 3 and didn't watch the event. I assumed el Goog turned it on by default, since their camera app leans towards the sparser side of things.
Who would use this more than 2x a year other than your local friendly cia / kgb agents? Raise your hand. C’mon now folks...
Many people have a social life, especially outside of working hours.
I can do this easily with exposure control within iphone, or use the Manual app.
This is high ISO, low aperture, HDR, plus ML for noise reduction. Apple’s ML package and neural engine can be put into work.
Totally. It's just over saturation of of the entire photo mostly. You can do it yourself with plenty of other photo apps on iOS.
Looking at those pictures in the OP, no, that's not what I see (generally speaking, lol).
let's hope Apple doesn't add this as a "feature" for the next iPhone to get everyone to buy the new model.
This is the only feature I have seen that makes me envious of Pixel owners. I wonder if it could be made to work with images that have already been taken. Or is it only possible with sensor data? It would be a great addition to the editing options in Google Photos.
How do quality photos compare to unnecessary and unreasonable features like you mentioned? Absolutely horrible analogy.
You can't get behind something like that? Funny. Your "Pickle 3" comment later in the thread shows your trollness and now I understand why you can't get behind better, more realistic photos.
Fake images from Google yet they come from an Apple loving site like The Verge? Very odd claim you make there. Maybe you should go see for yourself.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/25/18021944/google-night-sight-pixel-3-camera-samples
Apple: Hey Google, we could really use that Night Sight technology on our iPhones.
Google: Hey Apple, you know that $12 billion a year we give you to make us the default search engine on those iPhones?
Apple: Oh crap.
Google: Hey Apple, you know that $12 billion a year we give you to make us the default search engine on those iPhones?
Apple: Oh crap.
What I learned from this is the Pixel XL without Nightsight is terrible st low light photos.
Sorry, those filtered photos are neither better nor more realistic. I never understood why non-Apple people are on the Apple site.
It's more a curiosity how they managed to oversaturate the photo without introducing significant noise or blur.
typically, to oversaturate a photo at night, you require a long exposure to let in more light. The downside of this is that movement is picked up much easier, which results in blurring. These photos do not seem to exhibit this blurring effect. This leads me to guess that this isn't a long exposure. (Unless they were all taken with a tripod to minimize shake / movement)
so it's got to be via one of the other two "pillars" of photography. Either an extremely large sensor and aperture to let in more light, which I don't think they have the space for in the camera, So it leads me to believe it's the 3rd option.
the 3rd pillar would be ISO. Typically with ISO settings being cranked up, you get a lot of noise in the picture due to the sensitivity going up. This is more likely how it's being done and Google is using it's software / AI to mask / denoise the photo with a ridiculous high ISO.
For Apple to reproduce this affect (They likely can) the question becomes can Apple's sensors support such a high ISO and can their software prowess handle the denoising.
Yes, you know they aren't more realistic because you were there when they took them.
I am a new iPhone owner. Does that make me an Apple person?
From personal experience with the Pickel 1 and Pickel 2, they're terrible even in mid-afternoon in a livingroom.
The picture taken with the iPhone was obviously white balanced on the upper light background first to make the foreground so dark. With that said, the new Google software does appear to be a game changer. If it is as good as advertised...I've been waiting for this since iPhone 1!