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The Pixel Watch just got slightly better at sleep tracking

The Pixel Watch just got slightly better at sleep tracking

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The Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 are also finally getting Google Wallet. It doesn’t entirely fix the issues with Google’s wearable lineup, but it’s a welcome improvement.

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Sleep tracking screen on the Pixel Watch
If you logged 14 nights of sleep in October, you’ll get your Sleep Profile on November 22nd.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Pixel Watch, Fitbit Sense 2, and Fitbit Versa 4 make for a somewhat confusing lineup. The problem is that Google nerfed each — removing smart features from the Fitbit devices and removing some basic features from the Pixel Watch — to justify the existence of the rest. Thankfully, it looks like Google is taking some steps to reverse that. Today, it announced that one of the features omitted on the Pixel Watch, Fitbit’s Sleep Profile feature, is coming to the Pixel Watch starting next week and that Google Wallet is finally arriving on the Sense 2 and Versa 4 today.

Fitbit Premium’s Sleep Profile categorizes your sleep patterns based on one of six cartoon animals. The feature tracks 10 sleep-related metrics so users can get a big-picture view of how their routines affect their sleep and find areas where they can improve. Given that the Pixel Watch already tracked the majority of these sleep metrics, it was odd that this was originally gatekept to Fitbit devices.

Another perk: normally, you need to log 14 nights of sleep within a month to get a Sleep Profile on the first day of the following month. But, if you’ve logged 14 nights of sleep in October, Google says you should see your Pixel Watch’s Sleep Profile on November 22nd instead of having to wait until December 1st.

The Sense 2 draped over an iPhone 14 Pro Max
The Fitbit Sense 2 and Versa 4 will also get Google Wallet starting today. Google Maps is still “coming soon.”
Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Meanwhile, Fitbit promised that Google Wallet and Google Maps were coming to the Sense 2 and Versa 4 back in August. What it didn’t say was that previously available smartwatch features would disappear from both devices, including Google Assistant and third-party apps. That resulted in two watches that somehow offered less than their predecessors.

With Google Wallet, the Sense 2 and Versa 4 will give users more options when it comes to contactless payments — a common feature in modern smartwatches. Fitbit Pay has been around for a while, but Google Wallet offers better integration with Android phones and is accepted more widely. That at least takes some of the sting out of the other missing smart features.

As for Google Maps, Fitbit’s announcement blog says that turn-by-turn navigation is “coming soon” but didn’t offer clues as to a timeline. Still, when you consider it took Google over a year to bring Assistant to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, a two and a half month wait is a marked improvement.

Ultimately, these are both minor fixes. Google Maps is still missing from the Sense 2 and Versa 4, as are third-party apps and Google Assistant. The Pixel Watch’s sleep tracking got better, but you still don’t get SpO2 percentages, and bedtime mode still has to be turned on manually at night. The more encouraging takeaways are that Google is taking less time to deliver long-promised features and that, in the case of the Pixel Watch, it’s open to improving the watch’s Fitbit integration. Google and Fitbit still have work to do with this confused wearable lineup, but this is at least a baby step in the right direction.