Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
TL;DR
- As part of the March Pixel Drop, Google announced new media controls for the Pixel Watch.
- These expand the previously available playback controls with new options for playlists, speed, and much more.
- It’s take a few weeks to arrive, but the update is finally hitting smartwatches now.
Last month, Google announced its latest wave of upgrades coming to the company’s hardware. The March Pixel Drop included a bunch of new features not just for the Pixel smartphones, but also a handful targeted at the company’s wearables. Alongside new features like Pixel Watch loss-of-pulse detection, we heard about some improvements to the smartwatch media playback experience that were on their way. Well, they may have taken a little longer than you’d think to get here, but those new media controls are finally starting to arrive.
As the very last feature it talked about when announcing the March Pixel Drop, Google told us to look forward to getting the ability to “manage your favorite audio content with new actions on Pixel Watch to fast forward and rewind, adjust playback speed or control playback queue.”
Now, seven weeks later, 9to5Google has spotted these rich media controls beginning to show up for Pixel Watch models.
For apps that support these interactions, in addition to the existing playback, track advance, and volume controls, you’ll now find new options like being able to access your playlist, like tracks, change shuffle settings, jump forwards and backwards, and adjust playback speed — just as promised. Not all apps work with all of these controls, understandably, and you’ll have to tap through with the overflow button to access some of them.
It’s probably going to take us a little to get used to having all these new playback controls available right on our wrists, but we can’t wait to start playing around with them. Being able to easily access a playlist from our Pixel Watch sounds just perfect for summer hangs, paired with with a nice Bluetooth speaker.
