The world of Wear OS smartwatches got a lot more interesting this week with Google’s announcement of its first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch. While there’s no shortage of Android-compatible smartwatches, there are relatively few dominant players in this market, especially when you narrow the field down to devices that offer a native Wear OS experience.
While some Wear OS smartwatches like the Moto 360 and Oppo Watch have made some impact, it’s fair to say that Samsung’s Galaxy Watch line dominates the landscape. Samsung watches are undoubtedly the first devices most people think of when it comes to Android smartwatches, but that may change now that Google is throwing its weight behind the Pixel Watch.
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Whether the Pixel Watch will end up dethroning the Galaxy Watch 5 remains to be seen, but its arrival also raises another big question for smartwatch fans: What about the overwhelmingly popular Apple Watch?
Can I use Pixel Watch with an iPhone?
There’s no doubt that the Apple Watch is the best smartwatch for iPhone owners, but it also doesn’t hurt the Apple ecosystem that it’s pretty much the only smartwatch that actually supports the iPhone.
At one time, Android watchmakers like Samsung offered some iPhone compatibility with a third-party Galaxy Watch iOS app. For whatever reason, he stopped doing that a couple of years ago; The 2020 Galaxy Watch 3 was the latest Samsung smartwatch that iPhone users got to enjoy. Since then, the Galaxy Watch has been an Android-only affair.
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Google doesn’t seem willing to change that with the Pixel Watch, which has very similar compatibility specs to the Galaxy Watch 5. In other words, the Google Pixel Watch only works with Android phones and doesn’t work with iPhones.
While that seems to limit the choice, it’s not all bad. Whether running watchOS or Wear OS, modern smartwatches are designed to be an extension of your smartphone, delivering notifications and sharing activities between the larger screen and your wearable.
This requires a deep level of integration into your smartphone’s operating system, so it’s not something a third-party app can do very well. Smartwatches are considerably more complex than AirPods or Pixel Buds, which, despite their advanced features, still use an industry-standard Bluetooth audio connection under the hood.
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Simply put, Google wants to make sure Pixel Watch owners can enjoy the full Wear OS experience, and to do that it requires Android on the other end. While an iOS app could easily handle the Fitbit-powered health and fitness features, if that’s all you want to do with your Pixel Watch, you can save money by picking up a Fitbit.
What about other Android devices?
The Pixel Watch is an ideal companion for a Pixel smartphone, especially Google’s new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, for which it has been designed with an aesthetic to match. However, you’ll be pleased to know that you don’t need to own a Pixel to use the Pixel Watch.
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Technically speaking, the Pixel Watch is compatible with any smartphone running Android 8.0 or later. This compatibility is provided through the Google Pixel Watch app in the Play Store. However, it’s worth noting that you’ll probably get the best Pixel Watch experience if you’re also using a Pixel phone.
This isn’t unique to Google either. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 also works with any Android 8.0 device, but some features like Samsung Pay will only work if you’ve paired it with a Samsung smartphone. As Google takes a more purist approach to Android, the Pixel Watch will likely have fewer restrictions, but there’s still little doubt that Google designed it to work best with a Pixel phone.
Andrew Martonik / Digital Trends
The concession to other smartphone platforms probably has more to do with Android’s open nature. The Apple Watch only works with the iPhone because the iPhone is the only device that works with iOS. With Android on almost every other smartphone on the market, there’s no reason for Google to limit its customer base to just its smartphones when it can support a much larger world of Android devices with minimal effort.
Android has always wanted to offer more options, and that’s also true for the Wear OS smartwatch ecosystem. While Google’s Pixel Watch isn’t ready to take on Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5, it’s also just the first entry. It will be exciting to see what Google has in store for future releases as it continues to expand its Pixel ecosystem.
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