Pixel Watch 5: Proactive Gemini Assistance and Health Guardian Features Arrive on Your Wrist
Google's Pixel Watch 5 introduces proactive assistance powered by on-device Gemini AI, with At a Glance updates and faster Raise to Talk. It features the most accurate GPS tracking yet, new strength training guidance, and Health Guardian features like breathing emergency detection and monthly trend summaries for blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin resistance. Available for pre-order August 12, starting at $399.
If a loved one asks when is the dinner with family, Gemini automatically locates the info in your calendar and surfaces it directly on your wrist, eliminating the need to dig through your phone.
- edent
I overheard a conversation between someone on the Pixel Watch team and a woman I know. He was quizzing her at a party about what features she used - which were pretty much step counter and payment. He somewhat dismissively sneered, "Well, you're not exactly a power user, are you?"
I'm trying to imagine what being a "power user" of a watch is like. Can anyone enlighten me?
I think smart-watches are much like Alexa. What the user wants to do with it is almost totally at odds with what the company is selling. Alexii are mostly kitchen timers, song players, and light switches. No one is a "power user" constantly installing skills and using it for anything which increases the product team's engagement metrics.
The same is probably true of watches. Alerts are nifty - but cumbersome for replies. The health stuff is useful - but only for a subset of users. Seeing the time is great - but if the battery lasts less than a week, who wants to keep that screen on?
- haskman
If you care about privacy and owning your own data, then don't buy this, buy a watch with gadgetbridge support (https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/). I bought an amazfit active 2 a few years ago and it works fantastically with gadgetbridge on grapheneos. Easily gives me 5 days of continuous battery life as well.
- gavinray
Most useful bit of the announcement, coming to all Google wearables it seems:
Blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin sensitivity trends
> Built on state-of-the-art Health Foundation Models trained on billions of minutes of sensor data from opted-in users and rigorously validated against gold-standard clinical measurements, these models power three new monthly trend summaries: blood pressure trends, sleep breathing quality trends, and insulin resistance trends. Rolling out soon — with your first detailed summary arriving after one month of wear — these reports illuminate metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular shifts early, giving you clear insights to help you take control of your long-term health. Plus, monthly summaries will soon be available across our wearable portfolio, including the new Google Fitbit Air.
- ihaveone
Pebble Time 2 is still miles ahead being a watch, and only a bit behind being a computer. BUT, it has a sunlight readable ALWAYS on display, really good battery life and is open source. I still don't understand people charging their battery every 2 days or less. It's a problem guys. My Wear OS watches, even my fancy 2 screen one that got about 4 days or so, eventually ended up in a drawer. Never to be used again. Not so with my pebble, where I literally made an automation to remind me to charge it, because I charge it so rarely.
- tuckwat
30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker. I don't want to charge my watch every day.
I've been using the Garmin Forerunner for a few years now and the battery life is 2 weeks!
- anon7000
So I kinda hate smart watches, a lot. Mainly because they are about notifications and apps, both of which SUCK to use on my wrist. Notifications are especially horrible (looking at you Apple, not able to disable reaction notifications in iMessage…), distracting, stressful, make it hard to stay present and focused.
What I actually want:
- sleep tracking
- basic health tracking
- maybe basic GPS to track hikes/runs etc
And potentially an easy way to see certain pertinent info. Like if I’m doing water sports, basic tide info, or my next calendar event, or when I need to get off the bus. But I don’t want an app, and I almost never want notifications. And definitely no clunky app to be distracted by.
Plus, I don’t want a big old screen. I don’t want to charge it a lot. I like my digital Casio a lot.
Feels like this doesn’t really exist
- wkjagt
I have been wearing my Casio F91W for so long I can't even remember buying it, and I'm not even a power user of this watch (never use the alarm or stop watch). I wouldn't even know what to do with a smart watch. I'm sure people do more with their smart watches but I have a hard time imagining they actually do a lot with them. Unless I've really been living under a rock?
- rf15
I think I keep my 6+-week lasting Pebble Time 2, thank you. It already does everything I could ever wish for.
For people who want all the niceties of detailed health tracking with good battery life already (should) have a suitable Garmin for them.
This watch isn't even part of the horse race.
- floppydive
I reluctantly use a pixel with grapheneos, but anything that can only run google or manufacturer provided software without an independent 3rd party is trash, having looked at wearos while trying to refuse Samsungs terms/integration I also consider it a worse grade of trash than a phone since it can intentionally create codependency on other devices for management despite having more processing power than android 2-4 phones had.
- tlhunter
I like how the footnotes are all broken. Like the repairability footnote links to charging. Lots of money was spent making that website.