Pixel Watch only gets 3 years of updates unlike Pixel 9 series

The Google Pixel Watch 3 launched last month, but if you were expecting some kind of drastic update, this wasn’t the year for it. The Pixel Watch 3 is almost physically indistinguishable from its predecessors, but the magic is in the software, where it introduces a bunch of new features — many of them AI-powered, unsurprisingly.

The Google Pixel 9 series is on par with the best options in the smartphone space, promising seven years of software updates. However, if you were expecting similar luck with the Pixel Watch 3, you’ll end up disappointed.

Google Pixel Watch 3, despite being heavily software-focused, will only receive three years of updates

The Google Pixel Watch 3 is the latest smartwatch in town from a major manufacturer, and if the original Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2 hadn’t existed, the Pixel Watch 3 would shine a lot brighter. However, it’s pretty much unchanged from its predecessors in terms of hardware, which is certainly disappointing for those who’ve decided to camp out with their Google smartwatches.

Instead, the tech giant decided to differentiate the Pixel Watch 3 from its predecessors through the magic of its software (similar to the approach it seemed to take with the Pixel 9 phones — albeit with a few additional hardware improvements). But it deserves credit for this, because the new heartbeat detection feature is the first of its kind. Most people won’t need it, but it could be a godsend for those who do.

With all the software magic going on with the all-new Google Pixel Watch 3 — and the promise of 7 years of software updates with the new Pixel 9 series — it would be natural to expect your Pixel Watch 3 to share that promise of software longevity. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The Pixel Watch 3 will only get 3 years of software support.

That’s not only disappointing because smartphones get more than twice as much support, but also because it’s completely unchanged from the software support window that other Pixel Watch models have. That means you’ll get updates until October 2027 for the Pixel Watch 3.

Maybe Google won’t stretch much in terms of software support because its smartwatches won’t be as durable

If you have a Google Pixel 9 smartphone, you’ll be getting software updates all the way until 2031, which is pretty amazing when you think about it (especially since 2031 still seems like a long way off). That’s the best you can get in the smartphone world, and it’s being matched by Samsung’s flagship devices from 2024. It’s nice to see Android finally doing a better job of software updates than Apple.

With such incredible care for smartphones, I wish Google wouldn’t treat its smartwatches as if they were less important. But I understand that this may be because Google doesn’t really expect anyone to have a Pixel Watch 3 that still works well after three years.

After all, the watches are beyond repair, and after three years, the battery will likely need to be replaced. But since you can’t open the Pixel Watch 3 without destroying it, perhaps Google realized that it doesn’t make sense to expect anyone to have a Pixel Watch 3 that still works reliably after all this time. It’s not exactly a vote of confidence, but it makes sense.