Today, Google unveiled its first pre-fall smartwatch with the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. In doing so, Google noted that the Pixel Watch “requires a phone running Android 8.0 or later,” while discarding any mention of iPhone support.
Wear OS 2 watches have long required “phones running Android 6.0+ (except Go) or iOS 13.0+.” The Galaxy Watch 4 had the same minimum requirement for Android, even when Samsung uses its own Galaxy Wearable companion app.
Compatible with Android 6.0 or later, RAM 1.5 GB above
Samsung
According to the small print of the 16-second clip to watch the Pixel Watch at a glance, Android 8.0 Oreo from 2017 is needed (compared to Marshmallow from 2015). In fact, the exclusion of Android 6, 7 and 7.1 does not actually exclude many potential owners of Pixel Watch.
Meanwhile, Google does not mention iPhone support for the Pixel Watch. This is similar to the way the Galaxy Watch 4 was the first device with Wear OS since 2015 that is not compatible with iOS. It remains to be seen whether this will also apply to new third-party watches running Wear OS 3 later this year.
This comes after an interview with Fitbit founder James Park on Wednesday said that their smartwatches and trackers will continue to work with iOS. Park had nothing to say about the Pixel Watch and iPhone, but this lack of support gives Fitbit a cross-platform difference.
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