It’s an unlucky fact that getting a smartwatch often means needing a number of apps to regulate one system. And it seems just like the Pixel Watch gained’t be an exception. As spotted by Android Police, you possibly can already discover the Pixel Watch as an accessible system within the Fitbit app’s menus. Selecting the Pixel Watch then prompts customers to obtain the Google Pixel Watch app from the Play Store.

So so far as we at present know, you’ll have to obtain a minimum of two apps to even use the Pixel Watch as meant — no matter what your choice could also be.

Based on different smartwatches, the Google Pixel Watch app will most likely be the place you futz with settings, choose watchfaces, and handle watch apps. Being in a position so as to add the Pixel Watch to the Fitbit app most likely signifies that’s the place well being and exercise knowledge will dwell. (What this implies for Google Fit, who is aware of.)

All the key smartwatch makers are responsible of this — the Pixel Watch simply occurs to be a well timed instance. Take the Apple Watch. If all you need to do is observe your exercise and get notifications, you want a minimum of the Health app, the Fitness app, and the Watch app — three separate apps for one system. For instance, if I need to tweak sure Workout app settings, I would like to enter the Watch app on my telephone. (Frustratingly, some Workout app settings aren’t accessible on the wrist.) If I need to really view that exercise knowledge, it lives within the Fitness app. If I need to see general well being developments from sure metrics, I’ve to mosey onto the Health app. 

Samsung is one other good instance of the way it can get annoying actual quick. Samsung’s Wear OS watches require you to have the Galaxy Wearable app and the Samsung Health app on the naked minimal. But if you wish to use the EKG function, you’re going to must obtain a 3rd, single-purpose app known as Samsung Health Monitor. That quantity can simply balloon if you wish to use a Google service as an alternative of Samsung’s defaults (i.e., Google Wallet as an alternative of Samsung Pay, Assistant in lieu of Bixby, and so on.). And whereas it’s nice that Android customers now have extra alternative within the matter, this piecemeal app method is unwieldy.

This is nothing to say of earlier Wear OS 2 smartwatches. For the Fossil Gen 6, I ended up needing the Wear OS app, the Cardiogram app, and the Google Fit app to get the bare-minimum notification and well being capabilities. Even Garmin watches aren’t totally resistant to this. If you need to obtain additional watch faces or use Spotify on a Garmin, you want each the Garmin Connect and Garmin Connect IQ apps.

I’ll admit my griping is a first-world Reviewer Problem. But this concern additionally stems from the truth that we deal with smartwatches like mini telephones after they aren’t precise standalone gadgets but. Case in level, you don’t want an app in your laptop computer to regulate your telephone. They can work independently of one another. That’s not true for smartwatches. You can’t totally use any smartwatch with out your telephone. But even so, I’m undecided why smartwatch makers have shied away from utilizing a single companion app to make everybody’s lives simpler.

In an excellent world, you’d by no means want a couple of companion app per gadget. Simpler health trackers nonetheless have a tendency to stay to this mannequin. (That may change for Fitbit if it ever finally ends up making a premium Wear OS smartwatch.) I get that separating well being knowledge and settings into their very own apps accommodates of us who don’t need something greater than easy textual content notifications. But in case you do need greater than that naked minimal — as I think most smartwatch house owners do — you’re left juggling a number of apps while you’d profit from a single hen’s eye view.