While phones are at 7 seven years, the Pixel Watch 3 is still set to get three years of updates after launch.
Pixel Watch 3 updates
The Google Pixel Watch 3 is “guaranteed software updates until at least” October 2027, or “at least three years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US.” That language is unchanged from the original Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2.
It’s somewhat of note that Google is setting “October” as the month even as the Pixel Watch 3 is launching a month early.
(With the Pixel 9 series, it’s August 2031, even though the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro Fold are not launching until September 4. Another oddity there is how the “Pixel 9 & Pixel 9 Pro” are one line item, while the Pixel 9 Pro XL is a separate entry. You’d think it would be “Pixel 9 Pro & Pixel 9 Pro XL.”)
For Wear OS, Google does not distinguish between “Guaranteed Android version updates” and “Guaranteed security updates.” It’s just “Guaranteed software updates” that include “Google Pixel Watch security updates, and may include feature drops and other software updates.”
Given the same chipset, the Pixel Watch 2 is a given for Wear OS 5. It remains to be seen what the original model gets, but hopefully it’s the same version and in similar time frames. For the most part, Google has so far been good about bringing new app features back to older devices. In fact, that’s already underway.
Wear OS 5
Top comment by Justin Landis
5 -10 years ago we were exceptionally lucky if our phones were supported this long. We didn't think anything about it. That's just how it was. Now our phones are supported for 7 years.
Seeing that my og pixel watch will only be supported until next year (3 years after purchase) was such a shock to see. I somewhat expected it, though.
While I can't expect Google to support tech forever, 3 years now just feels incredibly paltry.
I realize the watch will continue to work but if I'm being honest I'll probably be rocking an unsupported watch for a significant amount of time.
It really makes me consider future pixel watch purchases.
I wear it everyday, all day.i use it strictly at as a smartwatch not a fitness watch. Do I really need this device? I suppose it's not great for some businesses for their customers to be thinking if they really need something or not.
We live in a world that most of our tech has an expiration date and everything else is a subscription sometimes devices have both.
This isn't a Google only thing but Google is participating in it.
I have a p6p and an og pixel watch. Both devices are are working very well but will receive their last os updates next year. The p6p will go on to receive security updates for a few years longer, however. Why couldn't the Pixel watch get at least security updates for a few more years as well?
I'm not sure this is a technology problem in this case.
The longer I keep playing this game, the more dystopian everything feels.
Based on Android 14, Wear OS 5 brings a more dense grid-based app launcher (with the list remaining), screenshot detection API, and Watch Face Format version 2 with:
- Flavors: Preset configurations for your watch face that users can browse in a companion app.
- Goal progress complication type: Useful when users can exceed a goal such as step count.
- Weighted elements complication type: Useful for showing discrete subsets of data.
- Weather conditions: Show the current weather, as well as forecast conditions for hours or days into the future.
- A heart rate system data source.
There’s a media output switcher, or system “UI that lets users choose which device should play media and show information about the currently-playing media content.”
If your app detects that there isn’t a Bluetooth headset connected when you want to provide audio playback on devices running Wear OS 5 or higher, offer to take the user directly to media output switcher.
On the Health Services front, you get more detailed running metrics:
- Ground contact time: The amount of time, during a single step, that a runner’s foot is in contact with the ground.
- Stride length: The distance covered by a single step.
- Vertical oscillation: The distance that a user’s center of mass moves up and down with each step.
- Vertical ratio: Vertical oscillation divided by stride length.
Additionally:
Starting in Wear OS 5, Health Services supports debounced goals to help improve the user experience for people who want to maintain a specific threshold or range—such as heart rate—throughout their workout.
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