Code within some Google apps suggests that the Pixel Watch series is not only taking notes from the Apple Watch with new pinch gestures coming, but also reviving a lost but not forgotten Android Wear gesture.
Smartwatch gestures are nothing new for Wear OS and, in turn, the Pixel Watch. However, Google doesn’t have any many options as its competitors, nor as many as its platform once supported. It seems that’s about to change.
As noted by the folks over at Android Authority, new code snippets from the latest Pixel Watch app update (v4.2.0.833802130) suggest that new gestures are on the way.
Firstly, there’s a new “Double pinch” gesture that Google says can be used to “answer calls, interact with notifications, take photos and more.” That very much sounds like how the Apple Watch uses its pinch gesture.
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Double pinch
Use double pinch to answer calls, interact with notifications, take photos and more
Beyond that, the same Pixel Watch app update contains snippets about “Wrist turn” gestures, which sound just like the wrist flick gestures that Google offered in Android Wear and the early versions of Wear OS. Originally, those gestures would recognize a flick of the wrist away from your body or towards you and turn those into an up or down action on the screen. It presented a hands-free way to scroll through notifications, but other more advanced gestures such as “Hold your arm in front of you and quickly push down, then bring it back normally to the original position” for taking action on a notification were quite a bit less reliable.
Google seems to be bringing these back to an extent, with “wrist turn” able to “silence calls” or “close alerting notifications” on Pixel Watch. It’s not quite the same, but it’s certainly a good idea to focus on the gesture that actually worked well.
There’s no indication as to when these might arrive, but they seem like a welcome upgrade to what the Pixel Watch is capable of. None of these are live just yet, though.
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