Software updates are supposed to bring new features and bug fixes, but things don’t always go according to plan. In Google’s case, updates often cause a series of annoying problems for Pixel phones, and it seems this curse has now spread to its smartwatches as well.
According to tech reports, a recent Google software update for its Pixel Watch has disabled the “Find My Phone” feature on some devices. The issue was first spotted on Reddit, where several users confirmed that it wasn’t an isolated incident.
According to the published complaints, the Pixel Watch 3 lost the ability to ring a connected phone using the aforementioned feature. Other users confirmed that the feature completely failed to ring their Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL phones.
And the problem didn’t end there; It appears that users of the new Pixel Watch 4 have been experiencing the same glitches, particularly when paired with a Pixel 10 Pro XL phone. In contrast, one user reported that their Pixel Watch 2 didn’t encounter this issue, while a user of the first-generation Pixel Watch 1 claimed the feature didn’t work correctly from the start.
While many users confirmed that standard solutions like restarting both devices didn’t resolve the problem, others found a temporary and unusual workaround: using a voice command to Google’s Gemini assistant on the watch to locate the connected phone successfully made it ring.
However, this workaround doesn’t completely solve the problem. Users complained that the Watch app on their phones became completely unusable, crashing and freezing unexpectedly upon opening.
Google appears to be fully aware of the issue, and while it hasn’t provided a clear explanation for the underlying cause of the software glitch, it has confirmed that it is working on a comprehensive fix that will be released with an upcoming software update. In the meantime, Google has advised users to rely on the Gemini assistant feature on their smartwatch as a temporary solution until the official update is released.
Although the “Find My Phone” feature may not be the most essential feature on smartwatches compared to health features, it remains an indispensable daily tool for a large segment of users who hope that Google will stop disrupting their otherwise stable devices with frequent software updates.
