Update 3/20/23 at 5:27
PM ET:
Google’s rolling out a fix to the late Pixel Watch alarm issue “in the coming weeks”
.
The update will be delivered via the Play Store, according to an email sent to Gizmodo by a
company representative
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You can ensure you get the update as soon as it’s available by enabling the auto-update apps setting in Play Store > Settings. Your watch will download the update the next time it’s on a charger and connected to wifi.
You might want to set a backup alarm if you rely on your Google Pixel Watch to get you up in the morning. The Pixel Watch is sounding off alarms later than programmed, in some cases as long as 10 minutes after they were set, causing some folks to sleep longer than they want.
9to5Google reported on several Reddit threads that have popped up within the last month relaying concern over tardy alarms through Google’s Clock app. The threads describe alarms that go off between one to ten minutes after its originally programmed time. It’s not a consistent problem across the board, but there are enough concerns popping up to safely say that it seems to be regularly plaguing many Pixel Watch owners.
“I have been having an issue that has now occurred 4 or 5 times in which my alarm will sound a few minutes before or after the time that it is set for,” writes one user, while this user expressed hesitancy to use the watch alarm at all. “I do have a backup set on my phone just in case.”
Another user ran into an issue where they missed their child’s feeding time because of the Pixel Watch’s snafu:
I have an alarm for 7PM set as a reminder to give my son his milk. It worked just fine for awhile but as of the last few days (started Monday) it was going off late. On Monday it showed it was still set for 7PM but it went off at 701. So I thought maybe it was some kind of glitch and deleted the alarm and remade one. Same time (7PM) and it went off at 702 instead.
9to5Google posits that the Bedtime mode is probably what’s making people late and keeping the Pixel Watch in deep sleep, as it seems to be the connecting thread for others experiencing the alarm issues. Bedtime mode turns off the always-on display and the tap-to-wake functionality so that the smartwatch doesn’t blast you awake in the middle of the night. Bedtime mode also turns off notifications so that you aren’t buzzed awake by a drunk dial. It’s a possible culprit!
I have not been using our Pixel Watch review unit consistently enough to see the same issues myself. To test this issue, I set four alarms on the Pixel Watch in succession, and each time it hit the mark. Then, when I turned on Bedtime Mode, it also rang the alarm on time. I contacted Google to ask if it’s aware of the issue and will report if I hear back.
