New contactless Pixel gestures
Google has released an update for the Pixel Watch 4 that adds two new features. Among them is support for contactless gestures: watch owners will be able to answer calls, pause music playback, or control a timer by performing a double finger squeeze or by turning their wrist.
If the gestures are available, prompts about possible controls appear on the screen. These commands were previously mentioned in the device’s code, and are now officially integrated into the software.
Reply updates and other news
The update also affected the “smart replies” feature: it is now available not only on the Pixel Watch 4 but also on the Pixel Watch 3. Short replies are now generated by the local language model Gemma, which runs faster and requires less RAM.
The earlier release of the Pixel 9 helped Google break into the top five most popular premium smartphone brands. At the same time, the new models had issues in tests: during a crash test the battery of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold exploded.