In addition to the new safety features coming to the Pixel Watch 2, Wear OS 4 will also be coming to the original Pixel Watch later this year. In Wear OS 4, Google added three new safety features to the Pixel Watch, making it one of the biggest parts of this new smartwatch.
The first new feature is Emergency Sharing. This lets you share your location in real-time with contacts you choose ahead of time if an emergency happens. You can pick what information will be shared, like if you’re on a phone call, making an emergency call, or if your battery gets low. It uses Google Maps to show where you are.
Second is Safety Check. This sets a timer for you to cancel. If you forget to cancel it, the Pixel Watch will automatically share your location with emergency contacts. You can choose if your contacts are told when you start or cancel the timer, or just if you don’t respond at the end. If you don’t respond, it will do an Emergency Share. You activate this from the Personal Safety app.
Lastly, you can now add medical information like your birthdate, allergies, or medications to your Pixel Watch. Emergency responders can see this by holding down the button on the side for a long time. Google even sells a $10 sticker you can put medical information on and stick to your watch band. This joins the existing Emergency SOS and Fall Detection features.
The Pixel Watch 2 will have some extra safety features, like Safety Signal (with a Fitbit subscription) and calling emergency contacts directly. Google is also bringing the ability to have phone calls transcribed on your watch with Auto Call Screen, coming in the December update for Pixel Watches paired with new Pixel phones. Existing features like using Gmail will stay the same, and the watch interface will get updated looks.
Overall, Wear OS 4 brings important safety upgrades to the original Pixel Watch to help users in emergencies.
