Google pushed a new update to the Pixel Watch app last week. Version 1.4 of the app brought a Google Account linking feature and some minor UI changes. However, the update appears to have done more harm than good. The updated app is reportedly resetting app notification preferences on the Pixel Watch.
The folks over at 9to5Google have noticed that the Pixel Watch recently started sending notifications from apps that previously had notifications turned off. This happened after updating the companion smartphone app last week. The publication noticed this behavior on two separate watches paired with the updated Pixel Watch app.
This can be annoying as you’d have to manually set your app notification preferences all over again, carefully unchecking apps that you don’t want to send notifications to your wrist. Worst yet, Pixel Watch now overrides changes under “From phone apps” as well. Only apps that had notifications set to off on the phone remained unaffected for 9to5Google.
The problems don’t end there, unfortunately. Pixel Watch app version 1.4 is seemingly resetting app notification preferences even after manually making changes following the latest update. The report states that notifications are automatically turned on shortly after toggling them off. It’s unclear if the app is doing this or if the UI is incorrectly showing the actual state of notification settings.
Either way, you might be better off not updating the Pixel Watch app to the latest version if you haven’t already. After all, the update doesn’t bring any major changes or new features that you’d be missing. Wait until Google rolls out a fix for this notification issue. Since this appears to be a major problem, the fix should arrive soon. We will let you know when we have more information.
Google is preparing the Pixel Watch for the watch transfer feature
The aforementioned Google Account linking feature brought by version 1.4 of the Pixel Watch app appears to be in preparation for the watch transfer feature that will arrive with Wear OS 4. The big update may roll out following the launch of the Pixel Watch 2, which is expected to ship with the latest version out of the box. Google will unveil the second-gen model alongside the Pixel 8 series on October 4.
Note that the Wear OS 4 update has already been rolled out to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5, with the Korean firm pushing its One UI 5 Watch custom software on top. The Galaxy Watch 6 series debuted with the new version.