TL;DR
- Google has started to send the Pixel Watch to retail stores.
- One mallgoer in Australia received a random Fast Pair notification to set up a Pixel Watch.
- The notification also confirmed that a device app is needed for setup.
We’re only a week away from Google’s anticipated hardware event where the company will officially show off the Pixel 7 series and its Pixel Watch. Ahead of the event, however, a Pixel Watch was found at a Target distribution center last weekend. Now it seems another Pixel Watch was discovered in the wild thanks to a Fast Pair notification.
An Australian Redditor, Andad87, who was looking through Instagram while at a shopping mall received a Fast Pair notification after walking by an electronics retail store. It turns out what prompted the notification was an active Pixel Watch requesting to be set up. The notification showed a picture of a Pixel Watch with an Obsidian band.
In addition to the picture, the notification mentioned that a “Device app is required to start set up” and had a button directing the Redditor to go to the Google Play Store. According to the Redditor, when they clicked on the button, it took them to a 404 error page in the app store.
Wearables with the current version of Wear OS don’t work with the old Wear OS companion app, so manufacturers have to create their own app instead. Google is working on its own Pixel Watch app, however, the page doesn’t appear to be live yet in the Play Store, which is why the button took the Redditor to an error page.
While we know that Google is preparing to sell the smartwatch soon, there’s some humor that can be found in the fact that an unreleased device revealed its existence by randomly trying to pair with a nearby phone.
