Google’s fixing the Pixel Watch’s tardy alarms

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Woman with hand in pocket wearing Pixel Watch
Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
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Google is rolling out a fix for a bug that made Pixel Watch alarms go off at the wrong time. The Clock app update will be delivered via the Play Store, according to a statement from the company provided by spokesperson Sofia Giovannello.

Reports of the problem started cropping up last month, with users reporting that their smartwatch alarms would sometimes go off a few minutes early or late. Apparently, they could miss the mark by up to 10 minutes, which could be the difference between making a meeting and missing it.

Both 9to5Google and Gizmodo speculated that the issue may be related to Bedtime mode, but tests were inconclusive, and Google hasn’t confirmed either way. The patch notes for its March 2023 Pixel Watch update, shared by 9to5Google on Monday, also don’t address the root cause.

According to Giovannello, you can make sure you’ll get the fix when it’s available by making sure you’ve enabled the auto-update apps setting on your watch in Play Store > Settings. That makes it so that it’ll automatically download updates when it’s on a charger and connected to Wi-Fi.