Despite of rumors suggesting the contrary, Google has confirmed that it won’t be launching a Pixel Watch this hardware fall. The company will instead focus on improving Wear OS and working with smartwatch makers, Tom’s Guide reports.
No Pixel Watch this year
Rumors have been rife in the recent past that Google would release a Pixel Watch alongside the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones, and the second generation of the Google Pixel Buds and the Pixelbook this fall. However, this wasn’t meant to be, and we won’t be seeing any Pixel Watch this year.
Speaking to Tom’s Guide, Google’s director of Engineering on Wear OS, Miles Barr said the company isn’t yet ready to launch a smartwatch of its own. “To think of a one-size-fits-all watch, I don’t think we’re there yet,” Barr said. “Our focus is on our partners for now.”
Barr, however, did throw a hint at what we can expect from a Pixel Watch in the future. The company would focus heavily on the Google Assistant, “to integrate AI and machine learning into the device, which is Google’s forte”, Barr said.
Google recently revamped the picture of its Wear OS platform, bringing substantial changes in the UI, and a bunch of other stuff. However, it still didn’t address the biggest problem with the platform – poor battery life. The company now plans to address that with another software upgrade early next year. And to achieve that, Google will be using the same strategies it relies on to optimize battery life for Android phones.
“The doze mode, like in Android, will power things down when the watch is less active, when you’re interacting with it less,” Barr said. He further confirmed that Google will keep rolling out improvements to Wear OS on a regular basis.
Google is, for sure, putting in a lot of effort to re-ignite the Wear OS market. And if we do see a new and much-improved Wear OS processor from Qualcomm on September 10, it shouldn’t take much longer either.
