What you need to know
- Pixel Watches have reportedly gained a small, QoL update for tiles alongside the recent Wear OS 5.1 update.
- Tiles now display a small circular app icon at the top “briefly,” to help users keep tabs of everything.
- The Wear OS 5.1 update started appearing in the March feature drop, two weeks ahead of LTE devices receiving it; however, the patch has caused major issues.
There’s a little more in store for the latest major Wear OS update, which involves a small update for app awareness.
According to 9to5Google, the latest Wear OS 5.1 update makes its new app icon refinement more widespread on the company’s Pixel Watch. The small update reportedly concerns Pixel Watch owners swiping through their set tiles on the watch face. Now, your device will display the icon of the app that the specific tile belongs to.
For example, the publication highlights the recorder tile, which shows the Recorder app’s icon “briefly” at the top.
The icon is said to remain “out of the way,” and it only seems to remain in view for a little while before disappearing. Curiously, the publication states this small QoL feature has been around for years, but it seems the most recent Wear OS 5.1 update brought it to devices more profoundly.
Google’s Wear OS 5.1 update is a new dawn for the company’s outlook on wearable software. The update, based on Android 15, first arrived for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi-capable Pixel Watches in the March feature drop. The patch was substantial for those devices as it finally brought the recently FDA-approved Loss of Pulse safety feature, menstraul cycle tracking, and step tracking improvements.
It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that Google finally brought that same update to all LTE-capable devices. Though it was late, owners of an LTE Pixel Watch, Pixel Watch 2, and Pixel Watch 3 grabbed a host of new features alongside upgraded media controls. The patch started rolling out roughly ten days ago today (Mar 28), so if you haven’t gotten it yet, give it another check.
Unfortunately, though Wear OS 5.1 packs a lot of good, it’s also been causing a lot of frustrations. The update has reportedly been delaying notifications and causing severe battery issues. Users have come together to voice these issues while stating a band-aid fix could be restarting or factory resetting the affected watch. Google finally chimed in and informed Android Central that they’re aware of the problems impacting “a very small number of Pixel Watch users.”