Exclusive features for the company’s first-ever smartwatch
As unbelievable as it may seem, we might be just months away from a first-party Google-branded smartwatch finally existing. After initial rumors and leaked marketing materials started appearing online earlier this month, anything seemed possible. A new report dives deeper into what you can expect from Google’s wearable next year, including its name, software features, and even a peek into its processor.
Let’s start from the top. These revived rumors made it clear that Google wouldn’t be using its Fitbit brand to market the watch — it’s getting its own Wear OS device sometime in the future — but that “Pixel Watch” wasn’t set in stone either. According to new details from 9to5Google, we’re starting to better understand how the company might brand its first-ever wearable. In an update to the Google app on Android, a reference to “PIXEL_EXPERIENCE_WATCH” points at the gadget sharing in the Pixel branding. The company uses these “experience” tags to mark exclusive features, and it looks like this specific watch could follow in the footsteps of phones like the Pixel 6.
The name “Pixel Watch,” or some slight variation on it, makes a lot of sense. Google has finally started taking hardware a lot more seriously with the release of its recent flagship phones, and earlier rumors suggest a similar path with its watch. Keeping its mobile-focused lineup under one brand — just as its smart home gear uses the “Nest” name — makes a whole lot of sense.
So what might those exclusive features cover? We don’t know much about the software experience on this gadget just yet — hell, we barely know what Wear OS 3 looks like without Samsung’s One UI skin in the first place — but it sounds like the newest version of Assistant that first launched with the Pixel 4 might make an appearance. It would allow for voice commands and queries to run directly on the watch, rather than always reaching out to the web for every single action. 9to5Google even managed to find an Assistant-related asset in the Wear OS 3 emulator, complete with a light bar design exclusive to Pixel phones.
While Google’s move to a first-party wearable may seem like something that could sour its newfound relationship with Samsung, that doesn’t seem to be the case. It sounds like the Pixel Watch — or whatever Google finally calls it — will run on an Exynos CPU. According to AP’s own Max Weinbach, it’ll use a version of the 5nm chipset currently included in the Watch4 series, albeit with Tensor branding. The shift away from the “Exynos” name shouldn’t be a surprise. The Tensor chipset found in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro is, at its core, a modified Exynos processor, and we could see a similar approach taken with this smartwatch.
All told, the looming launch of some long-awaited wearable hardware from Google promises to make 2022 an exciting time for smartwatch fans. Not only will the Pixel Watch maybe — just maybe — hit store shelves, but Wear OS 3 will finally be available on gadgets outside the Galaxy Watch4.
Read Next
About The Author
