Google readying ‘Wear OS Beta Program’ for the Pixel Watch

Abner Li | Jul 6 2023 - 11:10 am PT

Wear OS 4 was announced during I/O 2023, and only a handful of tentpoles were shared. Google is now readying a “Wear OS Beta Program” for the Pixel Watch.

“Wear OS Beta Program” appears in the page source of google.com/android/beta with two devices:

Google Pixel Watch Bluetooth/Wi-Fi
Google Pixel Watch 4G LTE + Bluetooth/Wi-Fi

The sign-up process will presumably be identical to phones and involve just clicking an “Opt in” button for your watch with the OTA soon following.

Notably, the “Your eligible devices” section recently rephrased things so it reads “Android Devices” instead of “Phones.” (That makes way for the Pixel Tablet and Fold, which will presumably arrive with Android 14 Beta 4.) We expect a new carousel/section for Wear OS when that Beta Program launches.

This smartwatch beta is presumably for Wear OS 4, but there is nothing explicitly pointing to that right now. Since launch last year, the Pixel Watch has been running Wear OS 3.5, and Google previously said it will “get updates for at least three years.”

At I/O, Google said Wear OS 4 will bring a “faster and more reliable text-to-speech experience” and the ability to “transfer data and settings between watches.” There’s also longer battery life in large part to the Watch Face Format and other power optimizations.

Meanwhile, Samsung released the One UI Watch 5 beta based on Wear OS 4 last month. Google’s emulator for app developers hasn’t been updated since May.

This upcoming beta track should be separate from Android 14, which is nearing an end since Wear OS 4 is based on Android 13. A launch later in the fall, after Android 14, is more likely as well.