A year later, I finally love my Google Pixel Watch 2

It’s been 17 months since Google released the first Pixel Watch and 10 months since the Watch 2 succeeded it, and I can finally say that I love this product. It has been a bumpy road for sure, but Google has slowly, very slowly, won me over.

See, since the original Pixel Watch’s announcement, I’ve kept a list of features and functionality I would love to see on my wrist, and sure enough, Google has ticked off nearly every single one of these. For real? Yes, for real. Almost every feature I’ve mentioned in my Wear OS complaints list in 2022 has been implemented — proof that Google listens and improves, but at its own rhythm.

Let me take you through these additions and explain how they’ve enhanced my Pixel Watch experience and why they’re making me excited for the Pixel Watch 3.

Early in 2024, Google rolled out one crucial feature to the Pixel Watch 2: Do Not Disturb and Bedtime mode synchronization with Pixel phones. While this may seem like nothing but a nifty extra, it really improved my smartwatch usage.

Without this synchronization, I had to remember to manually put my watch in bedtime mode every night or risk getting woken up by a notification or a bright display. Even without these interruptions, I’d lose 30-40% of battery life if I didn’t religiously trigger the mode each night. Since this option rolled out, though, I just plug in my Pixel 8 Pro at night, which automatically triggers bedtime mode on the phone (through Digital Wellbeing) and thus automatically syncs to bedtime mode on the watch.

Do Not Disturb sync has also been handy during meetings, at the movies, or when attending concerts and shows.

I’ve also been loving the Pixel Watch’s phone unlock feature, which automatically unlocks my Pixel if I’m wearing my already-unlocked watch. It’s faster than using the phone’s fingerprint sensor and doesn’t require me to look straight at the phone to trigger face unlock. Plus, it works with wet fingers, in the dark, or if I’m hiding behind scarves and hoodies in the middle of winter. I don’t think about it anymore, but every time it works, I’m thankful for it.

Google’s smartwatch apps have made some big leaps

Two years ago, the state of Google’s own apps on Wear OS was pretty laughable, if you ask me. Many obvious features were missing, and many apps were surprisingly not even there. But once again, update by update, almost every single gap has been filled.

I love the new Google Assistant tile, which lets me add two shortcuts to my most used Assistant actions. So when I’m in bed and ready to sleep, instead of triggering Assistant, speaking aloud, and waiting for it to analyze my words, I just tap the button for “turn off all the lights,” and Google executes that quickly and silently. I can also trigger my “night night” routine in Google Home and have it dim my bedroom lights to an easy warm color to help me ease down before being fully ready for sleep.

Speaking of Google Home, the app is still in preview mode, but it has received a lot of updates, including support for the same favorites I’ve set up on my phone. No more pointless scrolling through dozens of devices; I can quickly find the light or thermostat I want to adjust. Plus, it now has granular controls for my smart fan and air purifier, it lets me choose my smart lights’ colors, and it shows all of my routines.

Google has also made an effort to bring a Favorites tile to the watch, but the lack of names makes it less useful if you have several favorited lights or thermostats. There’s also a new Google Home device complication that lets me assign one of my watch face’s buttons or complications to a specific smart home device. Useful for quickly turning on the fan during summertime.

Another Google app that’s received some love is the Wallet app. Previously limited to just payment cards, Wallet now shows my boarding passes and entry tickets for events, so I don’t have to get my phone out of my zipped pocket while going through an airport gate. It also shows my loyalty cards now, so I can scan them at checkout in my favorite supermarket, grocery store, clothes store, and more without stopping to pull out my phone and triggering the ire of impatient Parisians behind me in line.

One of my biggest complaints when using my Pixel Watch used to be the inability to tap a calendar event’s address. If I’ve gone through the trouble of adding an address to an upcoming meeting or event, I should be able to tap it to start navigating to it. But that wasn’t possible until the standalone Calendar app rolled out to the Pixel Watch 2. With the native app, it became easier to manage events, but most importantly, addresses are now tappable. So when I walk out to the door to a dinner or concert, I can easily get the directions on my wrist without having to pass by my phone or memorize the address first, then enter it in Maps on my watch.

The new native Gmail app is nifty, too, but it’s not something I’ve personally found myself using all that much. I can take it or leave it.

After months and months and years of wait, Google Maps on the Pixel Watch finally added transit directions. And as someone who doesn’t own a car in Paris and takes public transport everywhere, I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted this. I was using Citymapper to palliate the lack of transit directions, but now I can just start a transit trip from my phone or my wrist and see the directions immediately on my watch. I also get notified when I need to get off the metro or walk to my final destination.

This ties in very well with the Calendar improvement I mentioned above. Whenever I’m going out, I just check my calendar on my wrist, tap the location, and start transit navigation. This is the kind of smooth experience and useful help I have always wanted on my smartwatch.

It’s been more than a year since Google announced Watch Face Format, its own template for watch faces on Wear OS, but developer update took a while. In the past few months, several watch face designers jumped on board, and there are now lots and lots of excellent watch faces for the Pixel Watch built specifically with Watch Face Format.

These faces are lightweight, don’t require a companion app, integrate into the Pixel Watch’s phone app for easy customization on a big screen, and should — technically — consume less battery than non-Watch Face Format faces. So, after avoiding third-party watch faces for years because of questionable performance, I can finally personalize my watch with a few different designs.

We know that Watch Face Format will be the only supported watch face format [sic] from Wear OS 5 onward, so I’m looking forward to seeing more and more designers adopt it and optimize their iconic faces for it.

At launch, the Watch 2 added auto-start, pause, and stop for exercise tracking and made backups and restores possible, two features I had also lamented with the original Pixel Watch. It also improved the charging speed and battery life compared to the first watch iteration. Plus, since the original’s launch, I’ve seen some of my favorite apps — WhatsApp, AllTrails, Spotify, and Swim.com — come to my wrist as native apps.

All of this, plus all of the added features I mentioned earlier, means that my Pixel Watch experience is almost perfect these days. Nothing is really absolutely perfect, though.

Hardware-wise, I’m still yearning for a bigger display and smaller bezels. A larger battery and longer battery life would be more than welcome, too. Thankfully, the quasi-imminent Pixel Watch 3 should come in a larger size and fulfill that wish. That’s why I recommend you wait for the Pixel Watch 3 instead of buying the Watch 2 now.

Software-wise, I still need Google to implement wrist-based music and video controls for my Nest speakers and Chromecasts. I want local and offline Google Assistant actions, like setting timers and alarms, that don’t rely on my phone’s connectivity. Fitbit’s severely lacking swim tracking, which is nothing more than a timer and doesn’t track heart rate, needs an overhaul as well. Period tracking should also be accessible from my wrist: I should be able to log a new cycle or see my current cycle without taking my phone out.

Plus, call me silly, but I really miss the gestures from the old Android Wear days. I used to be able to scroll my screen with a simple flick and flip my wrist to read a notification without tapping on my watch. Not anymore. And with Apple and Samsung adding finger pinch gestures, this is the kind of simple and smooth control I’d love on my Pixel Watch.

And finally, Google should bring back the most basic feature of all: fully charged notification. For a few months, my Pixel 8 Pro would pop a notification every time my Watch 2 was fully charged, reminding me to take it off the charger. That notification isn’t working anymore so I end up leaving my watch for hours on end on the charger because I’m forgetful like that. If I’m enjoying my watch, let me use it more, Google.

This might be asking too much, but since Google has fulfilled most of my early Pixel Watch requests, I feel validated in my way of thinking. I can only hope that these wishes come true soon, too.