Update to Pixel Watch allows you to use the watch even with a dead battery
Google has released an update for the Pixel Watch that adds an interesting new feature. Even when the battery is dead and the red low-battery indicator is lit up, pushing the crown will show a digital readout of the time. All Pixel Watch units running Wear OS 3.5 will receive the update starting yesterday and it will continue to be pushed out by Google over the next week in phases depending on the carrier. Once the OTA update is available for your device, a notification will be received.
Besides the feature that will give you the time even with a dead battery, the update allows users to rotate the crown in order to wake the timepiece. Waking the watch can also be achieved by pressing the button, tapping the watch, and tilting it. The sensitivity of the touchscreen has been optimized with the update, and the update also adds numerous bug fixes and improvements for the Pixel Watch.
A major Pixel Watch alarm bug will be exterminated in a few weeks says Google
One issue that we recently mentioned, delays and/or false starts for alarms set on the Pixel Watch, will be the subject of a Play Store update in the coming weeks that will exterminate this bug. If you don't want to be late for work anymore, go to Settings > Play Store on your watch and make sure that Auto-update apps is selected. This way, once the fix is released, it will be loaded on your watch as soon as you are charging the timepiece and it is connected to a Wi-Fi signal.
Monday's update also includes the March Feature Drop which adds Fall Detection to the Pixel Watch. The sensors in the watch will detect when the person wearing the device has suffered a hard fall. It gives the person thirty seconds to compose himself and if no movement is detected, the watch sounds an alarm, vibrates, and shows a notification on the screen. The person then has 60 seconds (as the alarm gets increasingly louder in volume) to dismiss the alarm or tap to summon help.
If the person does not respond after 60 seconds, the timepiece will summon emergency services and will also reveal the location of the injured Pixel Watch owner. The update also adds support for mono audio, and color-blindness modes. And Google has just released a video showing how the Pixel Watch can be used to monitor your heart rhythm to make sure that you don't have AFib. The latter is a serious medical issue that can cause strokes, blood clots, and even death. We've embedded the video in this article.
How to update your Pixel Watch
To update your Pixel Watch, swipe down from the top of the watch face and tap Settings > System > System updates. It will take less than an hour to complete the update. To help things along, make sure that your Pixel Watch is on its charger, charged to at least 50%, and connected to a Wi-Fi signal. When the update is complete, the watch will reboot. You can check to see which version of the software is running on your watch by going to Settings > System > About > Versions > Build number.
Could we be a few weeks away from seeing a preview about the Pixel Watch 2? Google gave us a preview about the first-gen Pixel Watch during last year's Google I/O developer conference. That would suggest that we could see a preview of the second-gen timepiece during Google I/O 2023. The event will take place on May 10th and the Keynote can be viewed for free. We might also hear about the Pixel 7a, the Pixel 8 Line, the Pixel Fold, and the Pixel Tablet.
Google will reportedly continue to expand the Pixel ecosystem this year by adding a foldable phone, and an Android-powered tablet.
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