I've spent over a month wearing the Pixel Watch 4 as my daily (and nightly) companion, and while it's still one of my favorite Android watches out there, the honeymoon phase is officially over and some of its quirks (and scratches) have started to surface.
The look and feel still hold up to the test of time; it's sleek, understated, and comfortable to wear. But it's the intuitive UI, the seamless syncing with my phone, and the way it fits so naturally into the Android ecosystem that keep me coming back to it. 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.
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.
Sometimes I have to exaggerate the wrist-raise that triggers it to listen, while other times it wakes up unprompted because I'm emphatically gesturing with my hands like the spirited Latin woman that I am. Often, there's a noticeable delay before it responds, too. Case in point: I was on a video call with my manager when Gemini suddenly chimed in with an answer to… absolutely nothing either of us asked. It makes the watch feel like it's eavesdropping, and ready to interject at the worst possible moment.
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