One of the highlights of Google IO 2022 was the long-awaited unveiling of the Google Pixel Watch. Or at least an extended tease. Google hasn’t revealed everything about the wearable, but much of what it has said is worth getting excited about – with baked-in Fitbit tech being a highlight. But something less positive was also revealed – it’s not compatible with iPhones.
That means if you have an iPhone you won’t be able to connect a Pixel Watch to it, essentially making the wearable useless to you.
In other words, it’s possible that no Wear OS 3 watches will support iPhones – though it’s important to note that this hasn’t been confirmed. Even if other Wear OS 3 watches do launch with iPhone support though, that still leaves arguably the two biggest names in Wear OS without it.
Analysis: Google is becoming more Apple
As noted above, Apple has a history of locking users into its ecosystem, and – most relevantly in this case – it doesn’t let you use the Apple Watch with any phone that’s not running iOS. But Google is different, or it used to be anyway.
One of the big selling points of Android (and Wear OS) is the open nature of the software. You’re not locked to a specific brand or even a specific app store. It’s your device so you can do what you want with it – and connect what you want to it.
While this move isn’t quite locking it down as much as Apple has with the Apple Watch (after all, there are still hundreds if not thousands of different Android phones that you’ll be able to pair it with), it’s definitely a step in that direction, and one that’s disappointing to see.
Wear OS already feels like an underdog in the smartwatch space (not helped by Google’s neglect of the platform), and while it finally feels like Google is paying some attention to it, locking out millions of potential users doesn’t seem like the smart play.
- These are the best smartwatches