Google may have quietly removed the Pixel Watch’s battery full notification

Summary

• Google has reportedly removed battery full notifications from the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2.
• This basic notification was initially rolled out in late November but supposedly hasn’t reached many users yet.
• Pixel Watch owners can currently try out a couple of third-party apps to serve this purpose until Google’s solution is widely available.

The Google Pixel Watch series is relatively new on the scene, given that we’ve only seen two iterations so far. The 1st gen Pixel Watch wasn’t perfect by any means, while the more recent Pixel Watch 2 managed to rectify some of those problems. A leak in early November pointed to a useful battery full notification that would send a smartphone notification when their Pixel Watch is fully charged. The feature then began widely rolling out to Pixel Watch owners later that month. But it looks like the feature may have been quietly removed by Google in the last few months, while some Pixel Watch users reportedly haven’t seen it at all.

Android Authorityreports that at least one of their writing staff is no longer seeing this notification on their paired phone. Some digging by the publication revealed a Google community thread where several people have identical complaints, with the original complaint dating back to February this year.

The thread has had multiple responses since then, with the latest one being from April. Based on the list of complaints, the issue doesn’t seem limited to a particular smartphone and Pixel Watch combination, meaning it’s fairly widespread. However, there’s one individual labeled as a Gold Product Expert who says the full battery notifications have appeared on their Pixel Watch 1 paired with the Pixel Fold. However, this particular message is from early February, so things may have changed since then.

A Silver Product Expert on Google’s community forum page is also among the many complainants. In March, the expert suggested that the feature may still be in its testing stage, theorizing that this is why the full battery alerts haven’t appeared on most Pixel Watches yet. The individual has reportedly escalated this issue with the relevant team and is waiting to hear back.

There are alternatives

People who own a recent Samsung Galaxy Watch model probably take full battery notifications on their phones for granted. This minor but key feature also exists in Apple Watch models, so it’s not a massive feature by any stretch of the imagination. With these factors in mind, it’s somewhat surprising that Google had to wait until November 2023 to roll out this feature and couldn’t even do that correctly, leading to several users still not being able to see these notifications on their Pixel Watch models.

Thankfully, a quick look at a Reddit thread describing this same issue tells us that there are some workarounds available. One of them is a free third-party app known as Watch Charging Notification, which generates a notification on your phone when the smartwatch begins charging and can alert you when it’s fully charged. If you want something that gives you more control, a $1 app known as Phone Battery On Wear is also worth considering.