Google Pixel Watch companion app hits 500,000+ downloads on Play Store

Abner Li | Feb 8 2023 - 9:13 am PT

The Pixel Watch was announced just over four months ago, and its Android companion app has now hit over 500,000 downloads on the Play Store.

With Wear OS 3, Google required all watch manufacturers to release and maintain their own companion apps instead of using the main “Wear OS” client, which has over 50 million downloads. These applications let you set and customize watch faces, manage notifications, and control other wearable settings from your phone.

The Google Pixel Watch app very recently hit the “500,000+ downloads” milestone. It’s not a 1:1 indicator of how many Pixel Watch units have been sold since launch in mid-October as anyone can install the app, but it’s functionally pointless to have it installed without owning a Google wearable.

As of Wednesday morning, the “Google Pixel Watch Faces” and “Google Pixel Watch Services” apps are still at 100K+ downloads, which is the Play Store milestone before 500K+. Both see immediate updates after setting up a device. There’s also the “Wear OS System UI” app that’s on the Pixel Watch, though the description — “provides access to the latest Wear OS smartwatch user experiences” — is rather generalized.

The Wear OS 3 Weather app that’s not exclusive to the Pixel Watch hit 500,000 downloads a few weeks ago.

Google historically does not release hardware sales figures, and today’s download count is not perfect but provides an estimate within the ballpark. Since launch, the Pixel Watch has seen various $50 discounts, with one such deal currently live until Sunday.