Google Pixel Watch app is now live on the Play Store

Google has just made available its Pixel Watch app for download on the Play Store. This ups the number of proprietary apps that you can use with the new timepiece to three.

The company’s first smartwatch was unveiled a couple of days ago. As expected, the wearable is heavily fused with Fitbit technology. Hence it is no surprise that you can use Fitbit’s health and fitness app to view your Pixel Watch activity data. In fact it seems that the company prefers you to use this.

In a recent interview with CNET, Google’s James Park says they consider the “Fitbit experience to be the flagship primary health experience for Google users.”

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

Having said that, Google Fit continues to exist. So you can use that software instead to sync your data. However it will not likely be to the same depth and will lack the insights that come with Fitbit’s platform.

There’s now a third proprietary app you can use with Google Pixel Watch

Now a third proprietary app has been made available and this one has nothing to do with health and fitness. It is used to customise your watch. The old Wear OS by Google Smartwatch will not work with the Pixel Watch.

If you head over to the Google Play Store you’ll notice that an app called Google Pixel Watch can be found. When launched it will ask you to set up your new watch. And if you don’t have one there’s a link which takes you through to where you can purchase one.

Once you have paired your Pixel Watch, the app allows you to customise watch-faces, manage tiles that display on the device, manage notifications, alerts, Google accounts, services preferences and more. For individual watch-faces the software offers colour and style customisation options, along with the ability to add and remove complications.

Here are a few screenshots.

Some of this you cannot do with the Fitbit software so you will need to have at least two apps running to be able to fully manage your Pixel Watch. If all of this sounds confusing, that is because it is. Having two apps to manage a device is not ideal. Having said that, this is only the beginning of the Google/Fitbit integration so in time things will become simpler.

The Pixel Watch app can only be downloaded for Android phones. If you have an iPhone, you’re out of lock – the Google timepiece will not work with your phone. Those on iOS will need to opt for one of Fitbit’s wearables, or make the transition over to the Apple Watch, Garmin or one of the other wearable manufacturers.

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