Owners of the Google Pixel Watch are now seeing an update for “ProtoLayout Renderer,” which is making its first appearance on the Play Store.
According to the official Play Store description for the app, ProtoLayout Renderer is responsible for rendering the many Tiles that you can access by swiping left or right from your watch’s home screen. While the name will be unfamiliar to most, this system app isn’t actually new, it’s just not been updated through the Play Store before. That’s how, despite only being listed yesterday, ProtoLayout Renderer already has over 5 million “downloads.”
On the Pixel Watch, the update bumps the version from 1.0.0 to 1.2.224.561625265. Somewhat curiously, the Play Store listing includes screenshots that show an older, presumably unreleased version, 1.2.58.101. Other versions of the app have surfaced through the Wear OS 4 emulator available in Android Studio.
Google doesn’t offer an official explanation of what’s new in this first ProtoLayout Renderer update in the Play Store. One thing we’ve noted, though, is that the app slims down quite a bit following the update, from 2.7 MB to 1.5 MB. It’s unclear if the update offers any notable performance improvements.
For now, we’ve only spotted the update on the Pixel Watch, with members of the 9to5Google team confirming that ProtoLayout Renderer is marked as unavailable on all other Wear OS 3 watches we’ve tested.
Have you noticed any changes to the Tiles on your Pixel Watch after installing this ProtoLayout Renderer update? Let us know in the comments below.
More on Pixel Watch:
- You can save hundreds on a Pixel Watch 2 by trading in an Apple Watch
- The Pixel Watch 2 drops wireless charging for contact pins
- Hands-on: ‘Watch Unlock’ on Pixel Watch is shockingly quick and easy
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