Newsletter
Last week, Verizon announced that the Pixel Watch is receiving the March 2023 update. However, Google didn’t confirm the rollout from its side. A week later, we now have official confirmation that the big new update is available for the first-gen Google smartwatch.
This month’s update for the Pixel Watch is a massive one. It contains plenty of exciting goodies, not least the fall detection feature that has been in development and testing for the past few months. Following this update, your wrist wearable will be able to detect a hard fall and automatically connect you to emergency services. The automatic dialing feature may be geo-restricted in some markets, though.
Additionally, the Pixel Watch will now show you the time even when the device is turned off due to a low battery. A digital clock will briefly appear on the screen upon crown push, alongside a red low battery indicator. The haptic crown can also turn on AOD (always-on display) after the latest update. This is in addition to the existing ability to enable AOD in the settings on your watch. You can also use the smartphone companion app.
Google has also improved the touch sensitivity of the Pixel Watch display. The battery-saver button in the quick settings gets improvements too, with it now activating in a single tap. As part of the March Feature Drop, the Pixel Watch is picking up mono-audio which limits the disorientation of split audio. New color correction and greyscale modes further optimize the display for various color preferences.
Google says a separate update for the Clock app in the coming weeks will fix the alarm problem in the Pixel Watch. many users have reported that alarms don’t go off on time. Some start ringing early while others go off well after the time. Keep a tab on the Play Store for this update.
The March 2023 update for the Pixel Watch is rolling out widely
The March update for the Pixel Watch comes with the firmware build number RWDA.230114.008.R1, the same that Verizon revealed last week. For users in Japan and Taiwan, it’s RWDA.230114.008.J2. The update is rolling out widely and should be available for all eligible users around the world within the next few days. Along with the aforementioned new features, this release also contains plenty of bug fixes and improvements. You can go to Settings > System > System updates to manually check for new updates for your Pixel Watch.