Later this fall, Google is expected to motorboat the Pixel Watch. Given Wear OS’s history, there’s understandably a batch of anticipation. Will the ticker beryllium good? Will it neglect to present the committedness of Wear OS 3? Honestly, those questions mightiness beryllium much due for aboriginal iterations of the watch. For now, each Google has to bash is make a smartwatch that does the basics well.

Case successful point, XDA Developers precocious reported that Google seems to beryllium hard astatine enactment addressing an egregious oversight successful Wear OS: backups. In an APK teardown of Google Play services v 22.23.12 beta, XDA says that there’s codification that refers to “companion backups” via Google One. Right now, if you upgrade to a caller phone, you can’t backmost up your non-Samsung Wear OS smartwatch data. Yes, though it’s 2022 and astir each user gadget lets you make unreality backups, you inactive person to mill reset your Wear OS smartwatch. (Technically, determination is simply a workaround to this inconvenience — but you shouldn’t need a workaround for thing arsenic basal arsenic a unreality backup. )

This conscionable underscores however debased the barroom is for the Pixel Watch. Competitors similar Samsung and Apple already person unreality backup for their watches because, again, it’s 2022. So agelong arsenic the Pixel Watch tin make it 24 hours connected a azygous charge, has a snappy chip, and tin spell down the database of expected smartwatch features (e.g., contactless payments, euphony streaming, basal fittingness tracking, backups, etc.), it’ll win astatine Not Sucking, which is each Google needs to found that its wearables tin play ball. Anything other connected apical of that is gravy.

And there’s crushed to judge that Google tin win successful creating a smartwatch that tin emergence supra the barroom of “not sucking.” Since announcing Wear OS 3 with Samsung astatine I/O 2021, Google has made demonstrable strides successful making Wear OS a viable platform. Not lone person much fashionable third-party developers created optimized Wear OS 3 apps but besides Google’s made an effort to bring app improvements to Wear OS 2 arsenic well. That includes bundle similar Google Pay and Messages, streaming via YouTube Music, and different basal touches you’d expect to spot connected modern smartwatches. That momentum only seems to beryllium picking up arsenic we get person to the Pixel Watch’s debut. For instance, 9to5Google found signs that the Pixel Watch whitethorn besides enactment Google Fi, which could suggest the ticker might enactment LTE information without needing a telephone number. (Or Google could spell the aforesaid way arsenic different carriers and complaint a tiny interest for an other line.)

Google Fi enactment would spell beyond the “just don’t suck” bare minimum. But also, according to its I/O 2022 presentation, we tin expect a streamlined Wear OS 3 UI, a caller Fitbit integration, and exigency calling. We should expect apps similar Google Assistant, YouTube Music, Google Wallet, Google Home, and Google Maps — which is simply a coagulated lineup arsenic acold arsenic autochthonal apps go. At slightest connected paper, this is what I’d expect to spot successful a modern smartwatch.

I’m not acceptable to accidental the Pixel Watch volition beryllium bully oregon adjacent “good enough.” That’s not thing I tin determine until I’ve enactment it done its paces. There are things that you simply can’t cognize from a spec sheet, similar however good it integrates with non-Pixel phones, however snappy the show is, and what real-life artillery is like. I’m simply saying that the barroom for a bully Wear OS ticker is stupendously low, and truthful far, Samsung’s been the lone crippled successful town. I’d beryllium genuinely amazed if the Pixel Watch could springiness the Galaxy Watch 5 a tally for its money. But if it tin successfully supply Android users a viable alternate to a Samsung watch? That’s thing we haven’t seen yet.