Wear OS smartwatch users can soon sync app permissions with their phone

Wear OS smartwatches are the best companions to your Android flagship experience. However, while Android as a platform can be considered mature and refined, the same cannot always be said for Wear OS. There is still some progress to be made for the smartwatch OS, and Google is slowly and steadily reaching there, with the Pixel Watch providing the perfect opportunity. Soon, you will be able to sync app permissions between your Pixel Watch or other Wear OS smartwatch and your smartphone, avoiding the headache of granting the same permissions twice.

As spotted by the (unofficial) Gooogle News Telegram channel, the Pixel Watch companion app will soon be able to sync app permissions between your phone and your smartwatch (namely, the Pixel Watch). The v2.3.0 update to the companion app introduces a hidden server-side flag that, when activated, surfaces a new setting submenu called “Device details,” which further houses a new setting called “Sync permissions from phone.”

This setting lets you enable the same app permissions on your Pixel Watch/Wear OS smartwatch as you have enabled on your Android smartphone. So, for example, if you have given location access to a Maps application on your phone, the same app on your smartwatch will automatically grant location access to it, provided you enable the sync setting. The “Device details” page is part of Android, so the feature isn’t expected to be Pixel Watch-specific and could be made available to the wider Wear OS smartwatch platform.

This sync switch remains hidden for now, but Google can choose to enable it in the future. Small quality-of-life settings and changes like these would make owning Wear OS smartwatches more seamless and burdenless, something that Google should emphasize to better compete against Apple.