C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
A man pressed the digital crown of his Google Pixel Watch 3.
TL;DR
- Google could soon let Pixel Watch users manually trigger backups.
- We’ve found code evidence suggesting Pixel Watches could soon get a “Backup now” button in Settings, possibly removing the current requirement of having the watch connected to a charger during the backup process.
- The option is similar to the Backup now setting you find on Android phones.
Google seems to be working towards making Pixel Watch backups a little less annoying. Currently, if you want to back up your Pixel Watch, you have to ensure it’s connected to Wi-Fi and placed on the charger. The watch will then automatically start the backup process if you’ve turned on the backup option in Settings or during setup. So as it stands, you have no manual control over when your watch is backed up, and the automatic process requires you to connect it to a charger. We’ve now found evidence suggesting Google might remove these restrictions.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
While sifting through the code in Google Play Services for Wear OS (version 25.28.34), we found a string referencing a new “Backup now” option Google may be planning to add to Pixel Watches.
The new option, likely presented as a button in the Pixel Watch settings when it goes live, is similar to the manual backup option on Android devices. That means you may soon be able to instantly trigger a backup on your Pixel Watch without waiting for the device to be idle and charging.
Code
<string name="wear_backup_now_label">Backup now</string>You might be wondering why only the Pixel Watch is expected to get the new backup option, while other Wear OS devices like Samsung’s Galaxy Watch or the OnePlus Watch aren’t. The reason is that Google Play Services doesn’t support backups for all Wear OS watches.
Samsung uses its own backup system via its companion apps, and OnePlus takes a similar approach through its OHealth app. So, the backup feature offered through Google Play Services appears to be specifically designed for Pixel Watches.
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