After years of anticipation, Google has finally unveiled its own wearable – the Pixel Watch. The smartwatch comes with a circular Always-on display, built-in speaker and microphone, NFC, built-in GPS, compass, and a bunch of health sensors including an optical heart rate sensor, blood oxygen sensor, and a multipurpose electrical sensor. The Pixel Watch runs on Wear OS 3.5, an operating system that many may have been familiar with most non-Apple smartwatches.
If you’re already impressed and want to buy one, one thing you might wonder is whether the Pixel Watch can work with your iPhone which is what we’ll try to explain in this post.
Does Pixel Watch work with an iPhone?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. On the Pixel Watch Help page, Google clearly states that iOS devices aren’t supported to connect with the Pixel Watch. Google has gone the Apple route by limiting the compatibility of the Pixel Watch to just phones that run on Android, similar to how Apple Watches can only be paired with an iPhone.
Which phones support Pixel Watch?
In order to set up a Pixel Watch, you need to own an Android phone that runs on Android 8.0 or higher. This means you may be able to use a Pixel Watch not just with new Android phones but also the older ones. Since the current line of Android phones run on Android 13, you can essentially pair your Pixel Watch with an Android device that came out even 3-4 years earlier.
You can thus use the Pixel Watch with any Android phone as long as it’s signed in to a Google account. The wearable will thus work on any Android phones released in 2017 or later which includes all Google Pixel phones as well as devices from Samsung, Oppo, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Motorola, Nokia, Vivo, and Sony.
Can you use Pixel Watch without an Android phone?
No. To set up your Pixel Watch, you need an Android phone running Android version 8.0 or higher along with the Google Pixel Watch app that’s only available on the Google Play Store.
Even if you manage to use an Android device for the initial setup, you won’t be able to use the Pixel Watch with an iPhone since there’s no dedicated Google Pixel Watch app for iOS. In order to customize different elements like watch faces, notifications, preferences, and other settings, you will require the Google Pixel Watch app that’s installed on an Android device.
Can I set up Pixel Watch with Fitbit or Wear OS apps on iOS?
No. Unlike Fitbit wearables or Wear OS smartwatches in the past, the Pixel Watch cannot be set up using the Fitbit app or the Wear OS app on an iPhone. Google has developed a Google Pixel Watch app to specifically work with its new Pixel Watch and this app isn’t available on the App Store on iPhones.
Will my iPhone support the Pixel Watch in the future?
For a long time, Google offered the Wear OS app on iOS and Android to connect and pair Wear OS smartwatches from major wearable makers. Although the Pixel Watch runs on the Wear 3 operating system that launched a year ago for Wear OS devices, Google has decided to limit support for its own wearable in such a way that it can only be used with the Google Pixel Watch app.
Similar to how Apple Watches can only be paired with an iPhone, the Pixel Watch will also work only on Android and we don’t expect this to change anytime soon. While new Wear OS devices may continue to remain supported on iPhone’s Wear OS app, the Pixel Watch probably wouldn’t be compatible with iOS for the foreseeable future.
That’s all you need to know about whether the Google Pixel Watch supports iPhone and iOS.
