In addition to letting you immediately launch complications, the Pixel Watch 2 also registers swipes from the always-on display (AOD).
As such, you can quickly open Quick Settings by swiping down or see notifications when flicking in the opposite direction. This also works to quickly show your left/right-most Wear OS Tile.
You can swipe from anywhere on the Pixel Watch 2 AOD, including the center, while starting from the curved perimeter helps to almost accelerate your finger.
This will save you from having to first tap (if you have Tilt-to-wake disabled to conserve battery life) the screen before swiping up/down/left/right. Along with the ability to tap and have complications launch immediately, this is a rather underrated addition for the Pixel Watch 2 that Google hasn’t talked about.
One downside of this change is that you’re more likely to accidentally launch something when you’re simply tapping the watch face to activate or brighten it. (Always tap the digital time or the very center of the screen to avoid this.) However, if you’re just trying to see the alerts feed, you can now just swipe up and avoid the accidental tap altogether.
What would be even better is if more parts of Wear OS 4 supported the always-on display. Namely, the system Now Playing controls just blur and show the time when your wrist is down. If play/pause and next/back were always visible and AOD touch inputs were available there, you could get one-tap audio controls.
More on Pixel Watch 2:
- Google Clock 7.6 centers the time, adds Pixel Watch alarm sync [U]
- Pixel Watch 2 lets you change vibration intensity
- Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 now use physical buttons to take screenshots; here’s how
- Pixel Watch Wear OS 4 update lacks new faces, Do Not Disturb sync
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