Pixel Watch prepares Wear OS ‘at a glance’ feature

The Pixel Watch and Wear OS could be a little more contextual, and Google might address that with the Assistant-enabled “at-a-glance” complexities.

About APK Insight: In this APK Insight post, we have decompiled the latest version of an app that Google has uploaded on the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APK files, in the case of Android apps), we can see different lines of code within that hint at potential future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be incomplete. We’ll try to enable those that are about to expire, however, to show you what they’ll look like if they charge. With that in mind, read on.

The Google Assistant on the Pixel Watch today is a straightforward voice assistant that can be triggered via the hot word “Hey Google,” pressing the side button, or an optional complication on the watch face.

The current complication is just the Google Assistant icon, which was recently updated to match the color of the watch face you set.

Quick overview

Click to activate the assistant

The latest release (1.5.67.x) of the Google Assistant for Wear OS reveals work on new “proactive_complications” described elsewhere as “at-a-glance”. For it to work, the plugin must be configured. We’ve seen signs that the At a Glance complication is limited and exclusive to the Pixel Watch.

In terms of what information a quick glance can show, the current feature set seems to be the weather and possibly a countdown to upcoming events. For example, if you have no upcoming events, the complication may only show the weather.

Assistant collects location data to enable at-a-glance weather even when the app is closed or not in use.

Today is %1$s\xb0 / %2$s\xb0

In fact, the layout looks similar to the daily weather forecast that was introduced on Pixel phones last year.

in ^1

now

Design-wise, this complication would likely need more space than a circular aperture could offer, though it could technically fit something smaller. Rectangular hole will be more perfect. On today’s Pixel Watch, this look is only available with the Utility face in Modular II and III configurations, though Google can always add more face designs — a frequent request — before rolling out the Glance.

Other functions at a glance on Pixel phones that might be useful are navigation and departure time prompts, air quality, severe weather and earthquake alerts, and other calendar reminders.

This function has not been activated yet.

thanks for the JEB Decompilerwhich some APK Insight disassemblies take advantage of.

Kyle Bradshaw contributed to this post