Pixel Timepiece’s Lifespan: Limited to a Three-Year Update Cycle

When the Google Pixel 7 smartphone series was announced, Google confirmed to us an expected, yet still disappointing truth: while the phones will get 5 years of security updates, we should only expect three years of major Android updates . For the Pixel Watch , it’ll be even worse.

Google has published a support page where it outlines how much time the Pixel Watch, its new smartwatch, will get updates. In that regard, Google is guaranteeing at least three years of software updates for the watch, listing October 2025 as a tentative cut-off date.

Related: Hey Google, Longer Device Support Would Help the Earth Too

Notably, this cut-off date also includes security patches, meaning that your Pixel Watch will live a whole two years less than your Pixel 7. Major updates on Wear OS watches aren’t as big of a thing as they are on smartphones — the Wear OS 3.5 firmware that the watch runs is based on Android 11 — so all you need to look out for are security patches and feature drops for the most part. Apple just released watchOS 9, which is supported on models as old as the Series 3 , which first became available in 2017 (five years ago).

Still, three years of updates for a watch that starts at $350 can feel like a kick in the teeth, especially since Samsung is offering up to four years of updates for its Galaxy Watch 5 range . Three years of updates for Google’s first smartwatch is a bad look when it’s the very company behind Wear OS itself, and we hope Google can step its software efforts up in future releases.

Source: Google

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