As a regular Apple Watch wearer, I found myself pleasantly surprised with the Google Pixel Watch 2 last year. The hardware was nice, Fitbit’s health tracking suite was solid, and even the battery life was good. However, it was never enough to keep me away from the Apple Watch — my personal smartwatch of choice — for more than a few weeks.
With the new Google Pixel Watch 3, however, there’s a new temptation that I didn’t feel before with its predecessor. I won’t know for sure if it’ll fully replace my Apple Watch until I spend more time with it, but based on what I’ve seen so far, there are a few new features that may ultimately push me over the edge.
More thorough running data
Similar to the Apple Watch, the Google Pixel Watch 3 now allows you to build custom running workouts. The interface looks great, and I’m eager to try it, but it’s pretty similar to what I can already do on my Apple Watch. However, it’s how Google presents your running data that sets it apart from the Apple Watch.
In the Fitbit smartphone app, you can now view the past year, three months, month, or week of your runs for a bird’s-eye view of your running history. Further, you can quickly filter this to look at your distance, duration, pace, or various running form metrics for those same time periods. From there, you can scroll down and tap into specific runs to get a close look at each one. It’s a level of organization that just doesn’t exist in the Apple Fitness app, and it looks fantastic.
If you’re looking at specific runs, you’ll see context added about them. For example, if you’re looking at the time/length of a certain run, you may see a note if you were faster than a target time you set for that run. Similarly, if you’re looking at the month/week/year view, you’ll see notes about your runs here, too. For example, during a hands-on session with the Pixel Watch 3, I saw one on the Fitbit app that read, “This month, your average ground contact time was 5% lower compared to last month. This often means you’re running more efficiently. Nice work!”
For runners who want to dig deeper, the Pixel Watch 3 records advanced running metrics like stride length, cadence, ground contact time, etc. The Apple Watch does this, too, but the Pixel Watch 3 presents it in a more helpful manner. Instead of just showing this data without any real explanation, as Apple does, the Fitbit app shows these numbers from a new run compared to your last six months of running. You can also see if you’re staying within your personal range for each metric and directly compare two metrics if you want. It’s all very nerdy running stuff, but I think it looks fantastic.
Recommend running workouts
On a related note, the Fitbit app will also now take the guesswork out of running and provide you with “AI-powered” daily run recommendations. Based on your previous running activity and how your body is recovering, you’ll be recommended different types of runs — such as 25-minute sprint intervals, a 45-minute easy run, or a 35-minute tempo run.
When you select a recommended run, you get a brief explanation of why it’s been chosen for you, along with a breakdown of all the intervals it includes. You can then customize the run if you’d like or simply run with the outline given to you.
As someone who often repeats the same handful of runs every time I go out, having some guidance here sounds like a blessing. I don’t love that the recommended runs are locked behind a Fitbit Premium subscription, but if they’re as helpful as they sound, that could be $10/month well spent.
Readiness score and Cardio load
Stepping away from all of the running talk, the Pixel Watch 3 introduces two new health metrics to the Fitbit app: Readiness score and Cardio load.
Readiness score works just like the Readiness score on the Oura Ring or the Energy score on the Galaxy Watch Ultra. After wearing your Pixel Watch 3 to bed, the Fitbit app takes your heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, and recent sleep, and uses that data to give you a Readiness score each morning when you wake up. The idea is to give you a 1-100 rating, telling you how ready your body is for the day ahead, and as someone who’s loved similar features on other wearables, I’m thrilled that it’s coming to the Pixel Watch 3.
Similarly, the new Cardio load metric aims to give you more personalized workout goals to achieve. Your Cardio load is filled up by all of your activities throughout the day, whether that’s walking around your house, running for the train, or manually recording a workout on your Pixel Watch 3.
You’re given a target amount to aim for each day, which is personalized based on your Readiness score and other health factors. If your body is well-rested and up for a challenge, you’ll have a higher target Cardio load. If you overexerted yourself the day before or have a low Readiness score for other reasons, you’ll be advised to take it easier. I like the ring system on my Apple Watch, but this more personal and holistic approach to activity tracking sounds like a much more sustainable and motivating system.
Auto Bedtime Mode
I have my iPhone and Apple Watch scheduled to automatically enter Sleep Mode at 11 p.m. every night, ensuring my Apple Watch’s always-on display is disabled and doesn’t unexpectedly send me a notification in the middle of the night. However, I don’t always go to bed at the same time, which often means I have to manually enable Sleep Mode if I go to bed early or disable it if I’m staying up later and then remember to re-enable it before I hit the hay.
While the above scenario is very much a first-world problem, the Google Pixel Watch 3 has a clever way of making it a thing of the past. It’s called Auto Bedtime Mode, and it does what the name suggests. Based on your body’s motion and heart rate, the Pixel Watch 3 can tell when you’ve fallen asleep, and when it does, it automatically engages Bedtime Mode on the watch — thus disabling notifications and the always-on display. When you wake up in the morning, Bedtime Mode automatically shuts off. It’s an admittedly small feature, but it’s also one I think I’ll be really grateful for.
Is the Pixel Watch 3 an Apple Watch killer?
As I’ve only spent a couple of hours with the Google Pixel Watch 3 during a heavily-guided hands-on session, I can’t say for certain if it will actually replace my Apple Watch. All of the above features sound great, but I still don’t know how they work in the real world. That’s a big hurdle to overcome, and I’ll be putting all of these things to test once I can spend more time with the Pixel Watch 3.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, though, I have to admit — I’m impressed. Google checked a lot of the right boxes with the Pixel Watch 3, and while I may ultimately stick with my Apple Watch once again, there’s a much better chance than before that I’ll switch to Team Pixel Watch. And that alone is a darn big accomplishment.
