Pixel Watch to Definitely Offer Smart Unlock

On Android phones, a feature called Smart Unlock allows phone owners to have their devices unlocked when certain requirements are met. For example, if you’re at home and within a preset geofence, your phone will stay unlocked. Another example of Smart Unlock is when you have a particular Bluetooth device connected, such as a set of wireless earbuds. It’s a very handy feature, something we always recommend people check out when first setting up their devices. In a bit of exciting news, it’s been essentially confirmed that Smart Unlock is indeed headed to the upcoming Pixel Watch, a first for Wear OS devices.

This news comes from code spotted within the latest Google Play Services beta, forcibly enabled by the good people at 9to5Google. With it enabled, a user would be able to quickly dive into their smartphone, so long as their Pixel Watch is “unlocked, on your wrist, and close to your phone.”

Additionally, the force-enabled menu states that there will be a dedicated Pixel Watch app, so it looks like a safe bet that Pixel Watch owners will get settings control via an app other than the existing Wear OS app. We suppose that’s cool, but we’re not sure why the Pixel Watch would require its own app, simply being another thing that Google has to support. Google does it for the Pixel Buds, too, so honestly I have no idea.

Smart Unlock for Pixel Watch. I’m here for it.

// 9to5Google