After a month of wearing the Pixel Watch 4 as my ride-or-die, the new-watch luster has faded and we've slipped into the comfortable rhythm of an old married couple.
The design still feels timeless and understated, but the parts that truly make this watch tick are under the surface: its intuitive UI, the seamless syncing with my phone and the way it works inside the Android ecosystem. Paired with my Pixel 9 Pro, notifications arrive instantly, health data syncs the moment I open the app and Wear OS updates are delivered faster than on most other watches.
But while the Pixel Watch 4 remains one of my favorite Android watches of 2025, there are some literal kinks in its armor that have started to surface with long-term, real-world use.
Watch this: One Month With Google's Pixel Watch 4: The Surprises No One Mentioned 07:42
Gemini butts into my conversations
I've already raved about how useful Google's new AI assistant is on a smartwatch. It handles complex requests in natural language (no robo-voice needed), understands follow-up prompts without requiring me to repeat the original question and it can even translate text on the fly. On a tiny watch screen, where typing and reading long responses is tedious, Gemini really does deliver a more seamless hands-free experience.
Gemini isn't exclusive to the Pixel Watch 4 (it comes to newer Android watches with Wear OS 6), but it does it a step further by letting you talk to it instantly: no buttons, no wake words.
During the first week, I went full-on Dick Tracy, asking my wrist every stray thought that crossed my mind. I loved that it read answers aloud so I could keep cooking or wrangling kids without stopping to look down. That was short-lived.
Google's AI voice assistant Gemini on the Pixel Watch 4 can often get triggered by mistake with its raise-to-wake functionality. Vanessa Hand Orellana/CNET
A few weeks later, Gemini has mostly faded into the background. Part of that is from the novelty wearing off, but mostly it's because Gemini keeps missing the mark when I actually need it. It turns out that having an assistant so readily available isn't always as convenient as it sounds.
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