Summary
- Google is enhancing media player controls on the Pixel Watch.
- It is adding handy options like shuffle, adjust speed, and more.
- The Find My Phone feature has also been tweaked and now requires confirmation.
Announced as part of the March 2025 Feature Drop, Google is rolling out enhanced media player controls for the Pixel Watch. The change will add more media playback controls, including the ability to shuffle the queue, adjust playback speed, and more. The Pixel Watch’s Find My Phone feature is also getting a small tweak and now requires an extra confirmation before ringing the paired phone.
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Since its launch, the Pixel Watch has only displayed basic media playback controls: play/pause, volume control, and skip forward/back. With the March 2025 Feature Drop, Google promised to roll out a more feature-rich media playback controller. But its plans got derailed due to the March update being a buggy mess.
Now that a revised April firmware is rolling out for all Pixel Watches, Google has also made the enhanced media playback controls live for its smartwatch (via 9to5Google). This change is not a part of the April update, though; instead, it appears to be rolling out separately through the Wear OS Play Store.
In YouTube Music, the richer media playback controls let you view the Up next queue, toggle shuffle, and repeat. When playing podcasts, the shuffle and repeat buttons are replaced with 10-second rewind and 30-second skip options. It seems developers might have to update their apps to take advantage of the Pixel Watch’s enhanced media controls, as it only appeared for me on YouTube Music. They didn’t show up in Apple Music or YouTube.
You can use the Find My Phone tile from the Pixel Watch’s Quick Settings panel to ring your paired phone. It’s a handy feature that quickly helps you find your misplaced phone. Google has made a small tweak to this tile’s behavior, adding a confirmation step.
Previously, you could tap on the Find My Phone tile, and it would immediately start ringing your phone. That’s no longer the case, with the watch now showing a “Ring Phone?” prompt. You must tap the checkmark to confirm the action. The change applies to all three generations of the Pixel Watch.
Similar to the enhanced media playback controls, the updated Find My Phone confirmation feature appeared for me after installing the April 2025 update. However, it could also be linked to a Google Play services update.
