Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Code within the latest Play Services beta hints at a new feature letting Pixel Watch users use Watch Unlock to unlock their Pixel Tablet.
- On the newer Pixel Watch 3, Watch Unlock could use UWB to unlock the Pixel Tablet, as the Tablet also has UWB.
- On older Pixel Watches, the feature could fall back to Bluetooth unlocking.
Google has been slowly but steadily building out an ecosystem of features for its Pixel devices thanks to regular Android Feature Drops and Pixel Feature Drops. If you have several Pixel devices, Google has implemented several features that let these devices play well with each other. The company could soon expand this ecosystem play, letting Pixel Watch users unlock their Pixel Tablet and that too, possibly with UWB.
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An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Pixel Watch users can use the Watch Unlocked feature to unlock their Pixel smartphone instead of using a traditional passcode or a biometric like fingerprints or facial recognition. A few requirements are in place, such as having a passcode set on your Pixel Watch and your Pixel phone and having both of them paired with each other. However, you do need a Pixel smartphone, so Pixel Tablet users are left without this feature.
Google Play Services v24.50.32 beta includes code that suggests Google’s Pixel Watch Unlocked feature could soon expand beyond Pixel smartphones to support Pixel Tablets as well.
Code
TabletWatchUnlock__continue_on_tablet_screen_timeout_duration TabletWatchUnlock__enable_advertisement_on_disconnect TabletWatchUnlock__enable_tablet_watch_unlock TabletWatchUnlock__manual_enrollment_advertisement_duration_seconds TabletWatchUnlock__pairing_screen_timeout_duration TabletWatchUnlock__use_new_phone_watch_removal_stringThe newer Pixel Watch 3 uses its UWB tech with newer Pixels for a quicker Watch Unlock feature. Since the Pixel Tablet also has UWB, the upcoming Watch Unlock feature could rely on UWB if you use it with the Pixel Watch 3. For older watches without UWB, the feature could stick to using traditional Bluetooth to unlock the tablet.
Google hasn’t yet mentioned anything about Watch Unlock with the Pixel Tablet. We’ll keep you updated if and when this feature rolls out.
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