Chalk this up to “oops, we did it again.” Second time’s the charm, right? After breaking a key feature of the Pixel Watch, Pixel Watch 2, and Pixel Watch 3 in a March update and then not fixing it in a subsequent April update, Google has finally fixed its step counter.
If you’ve got a Pixel Watch and you’ve been patting yourself on the back these last few weeks about how good you’ve been at getting in your daily steps, well, I’ve got bad news for you.
Google busted the step-counting feature in a pair of previous updates from earlier April and in March, and it’s been over-inflating step counts. So, those days you hit 10,000 steps? Yeah, you probably didn’t really. It was just your Pixel Watch getting a little step-happy.
a break, and then a fix
Google’s March update seems to have been what broke the Pixel Watch’s step counter, after which it began counting steps inaccurately. The issue affected all three generations of the Pixel Watch, including the Pixel Watch 3 that launched in September 2024 and currently occupies Google’s lineup as its flagship smartwatch.
“For those users on the March and the initial April release version: Resolves an issue where some reported receiving a step count in certain scenarios that was higher than expected, by reverting the step algorithm enhancements to the original step algorithm for all users,” Google wrote on its release notes for the most current software update, the second April update.
This second update, unlike the March and earlier April updates, doesn’t seem to include any further issues, such as security features or bug fixes. It’s solely there to correct the step-counting issue, according to Google’s release notes. Better late than never. Although you may have a little more work to do on reaching those 10,000 steps now that your Pixel Watch is back to counting them accurately.
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