Here’s how you can save battery life on your Pixel Watch

Andrew Romero | Oct 26 2022 - 2:05 pm PT

The Pixel Watch has proven that it can make it a full day just as long as you stretch the battery pretty thin. This guide will take you through ways to save battery on your Pixel Watch so you can get as much use out of it as possible.

Google’s Pixel Watch is a first-gen device, meaning it’s the very first smartwatch Google has ever actually produced under its own name. With that, there are bound to be some growing pains. One of which is the slightly-less-than battery that tends only to deliver around 20 or so hours of use.

Google states 24 hours of battery life for the wearable, though history has proven that smartwatch battery estimates are always a little generous. That being said, the Pixel Watch has plenty of features that make up for lower battery life.

So what can you do to extend it beyond just turning on the battery saver? Well, we have a few tricks up our sleeves.

Disabling draining features on your Pixel Watch

Most features that truly drain battery life are considered quality-of-life. In essence, those features are not necessary and integral to the function of your watch; rather, they make using it just a little bit better.

AOD (always-on display)

Always-on display is often the main culprit of a dwindling battery. When not in use, your Pixel Watch will dim the display and show only minimal watch face data. While this is better than full brightness at all times, it still has a huge effect on your battery life.

In order to save that Pixel Watch battery, you might want to turn AOD off. When off, the screen will blacken and show nothing at all. You can always wake the screen up by tapping it or raising it to your face – so long as that feature is on.

Head to settings by swiping down on your Pixel Watch.
Tap Display.
Toggle off Always-on display.

Tilt-to-wake

Tilt-to-wake is the epitome of a quality-of-life feature. Raising your Pixel Watch toward your face will immediately brighten the display and show you the watch face. It’ll even show you recent notifications. However, it doesn’t just activate when you’re looking at it. Oftentimes, it’ll turn on when the watch senses upward movement.

This can lead to a huge battery drain over time, and if you’re concerned about getting the Pixel Watch to last for a long time, you might want to consider turning off tilt-to-wake.

Head to settings by swiping down on your Pixel Watch.
Tap Gestures.
Toggle off Tilt-to-wake.

Screen timeout

One minor adjustment that you probably won’t even notice is a lower screen timeout time. When the watch face is brightened and your Pixel Watch is fully awake, it’ll stay in that state for a certain amount of time. Lowering that amount of time will add up to less screen time throughout the day.

Head to settings by swiping down on your Pixel Watch.
Tap Display and then hit Screen timeout.
Change it to 10 seconds.

“Hey Google”

Because the Pixel Watch is a Google-made piece of hardware, it’s bound to have “Hey Google” functionality in order to activate the Assistant. Because of this, always listening is turned on and your watch is constantly on the lookout for those simple two words. Over time, that can have a significant drain on the battery.

Fortunately, turning “Hey Google” off isn’t much of a sacrifice, since you can easily hold the recent apps button for just a second or two and activate Google Assistant. In fact, it’s almost easier to activate the Assistant in that way, and you don’t have to worry about it activating at random times when your Pixel Watch thinks you said the magic words.

Head to settings by swiping down on your Pixel Watch.
Tap Google and then Assistant.
Toggle off “Hey Google”.

Use Bedtime mode

One of the biggest features of the Pixel Watch is the Fitbit-powered sleep tracking packed into it. As far as performance goes, the data gathered is absolutely phenomenal. Of course, that doesn’t mean it has to drain your battery.

When you go to sleep, use Bedtime mode – swipe down from the watch face and tap the moon icon. Bedtime mode shuts off the display and rejects all touch input. With that, you’re likely to see an increase in efficiency overnight.

Consider a different watch face

Besides general settings, there are other ways to save your battery life on the Pixel Watch. One of those is to choose your watch face carefully.

Now, this isn’t a proven point of battery drain, though we have noticed a difference when using a watch face that doesn’t have bright features or real-time complications. For instance, the Ink watch face on the Pixel Watch is a beautiful face. It has a smooth ink animation that’s only powered by the AMOLED display, leaving out bright colors. With that, there are no complications either, which means nothing to update in real-time on the display.

Using this watch face, we’ve noticed an increase in the battery during the day, which really helps in the long run. By this logic, watch faces like Abstract, Ink, and Big Time will likely give you a longer period of time with your watch. The Photos watch face would be the main one we suggest staying away from if you’re itching for more power throughout the day.

Of course, none of these are matter-of-fact. The suggestions listed are merely based on our experience at 9to5Google in using the Pixel Watch on a daily basis. Combining all of these will likely give you a couple of extra hours in the day, which means you can track your sleep and your day’s activity without having to drop the Pixel Watch on the charger for a quick fill-up. Let us know in the comments if you have other ways of saving battery – and don’t say “use a Galaxy Watch 5 Pro.”