A smartwatch is more than just a device to give you quick access to your notifications and track your heart rate. It can really come in handy when you’re in a dangerous situation. This is why the Pixel Watch has a gesture that will let you easily contact emergency services. However, it can be a little too easy to do so. Thankfully, Google will make it harder to accidentally call emergency services with your Pixel Watch.
If you’re in a tough situation and you can’t reach your phone, a smartwatch can come in handy. Say, you’re in a car accident or you’re around people who could be dangerous. Being able to perform simple gestures on your smartwatch rather than having to take your phone out of your pocket is a literal lifesaver.
In the case of the Pixel Watch, all you have to do is press the watch’s crown five times in a row, and you’ll contact emergency services. It’s a quick and easy solution to help out when you’re in a pinch.
Google will make it harder to accidentally call emergency services with the Pixel Watch
The Pixel Watch’s gesture is great and all, but the issue is that it can be too easy to contact emergency services. This means that people can contact them by accident. We all know how that can be problematic.
Google is working on a solution, but you shouldn’t expect it to land anytime soon. It was discovered via an APK deep-dive performed by Android Authority. As such, you’ll want to take this news with a grain of salt. There’s code for this feature hidden within the Pixel Watch app (version 3.3.0.714022638). However, Google could change or pull this code at any moment.
According to the strings present in the code, Google could add an extra step when summoning emergency services. One string has the text, “On your watch, quickly press the crown 5 times, then touch & hold the screen for 3 seconds to call for help.”
So, after pressing the crown five times, you’ll need to hold it, which would make it virtually impossible to accidentally contact emergency services using your Pixel Watch. How easy would it be to happen to press the button a certain number of times and then hold it for a specific amount of time? The only complaint is that Google didn’t say whether to press the button five times and then hold it, or to hold the crown on the fifth press.
Anyway, this isn’t the only solution that Google is cooking up. There’s also a gesture that will still have you press the crown five times. However, the watch will wait five seconds before calling emergency services. This will give you a second to cancel it if you didn’t mean to do it. At this point, we don’t know when Google plans to bring this feature if at all.
