The Pixel Watch can charge wirelessly despite lacking official support

Pranob Mehrotra

XDA Developers


The Pixel Watch can charge wirelessly despite lacking official support

Google unveiled the highly-anticipated Pixel Watch at its Made by Google event earlier this month. The smartwatch brings many features to the table, including heart rate monitoring, AFib detection, exercise tracking, sleep monitoring, and more. Given its premium pricing, you’d also expect it to offer wireless charging support. However, Google says the Pixel Watch does not support wireless charging and can only be charged using the included magnetic charging puck.

Interestingly, some early Pixel Watch buyers have reported that it can charge wirelessly with the reverse wireless charging feature on some smartphones and a few Qi wireless chargers. The reports suggest that the Pixel Watch charges wirelessly with the Pixel 7, Qi wireless chargers, and even wireless charging power banks, leading to some confusion.

They told us it won’t work, well….#madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/GsrcD7NDPC

— Nils Ahrensmeier (@NilsAhrDE) October 6, 2022

A Pixel Watch product expert has now cleared the air and revealed that it can charge wirelessly in certain conditions, even though Google still maintains that the watch does not officially support wireless charging. In response to a recent post on Reddit, the expert said, “Wireless charging is not supported on the Google Pixel Watch. There may be some charging configurations where reverse wireless or Qi charging appears to work. However, this will be very device and charger specific and is not guaranteed to provide a consistent, steady, or proper charger. Note that in some cases, this could cause the device to discharge while on charger. For the best experience, you should always use the charger that was provided with your watch.”

While the expert recommends using the included magnetic charging puck and warns users that the watch might not charge consistently using Qi chargers or reverse wireless charging, they inadvertently confirm that the Pixel Watch will charge with specific devices.

Pixel Watch charging wirelessly on the Oppo Find X5 Pro.

Recent reports indicate that you can charge the watch wirelessly with a Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro, Qi wireless chargers, and even some power banks. Users who tested the feature say the watch takes about the same time to charge with these devices as the included wireless charging puck, but your mileage may vary.

It’s not immediately clear why Google isn’t marketing the Pixel Watch’s wireless charging capabilities and why it still maintains that it doesn’t support wireless charging. We’ve reached out to Google and we’ll update this post as soon as we have more info.

Continue Reading

Loading data