Your Google Pixel Watch Sleep Tracking Might Be Broken - But It Should Be Fixed Soon

Pixel Watch owners are experiencing issues with their sleep data. First identified on Reddit, users noticed that their watches showed "No recent data. Wear your watch to sleep" messages, despite Fitbit applications revealing that sleep cycles were recorded via their smart watches. Users who attempted to troubleshoot by restarting their watches saw no change in their displayed fitness data. While Reddit complaints largely center around the Google Pixel 2, the scale of the problem remains unknown.

Some users have noted that this is indicative of wider reliability issue with Google's Pixel watch lineup. However, most users are advised not to panic. Although Google has not confirmed the source of the problem, Fitbit's continued data collection points to the bug likely being a noncritical issue. In the meantime, Google has confirmed that it is working on it. Billed by Google as "everything you need is on your wrist," the Pixel Watch is widely considered one of the best wearables for sleep tracking due to its long battery life and contextual recommendations. 

Providing "Morning Brief" sleep summaries and daily Sleep Scores, the Pixels' sleep tracking capabilities remain one of the product's most lauded attributes. However, the popular watch has experienced several health-tracking mishaps already, ranging from skewed step counts to missing data. Whether such concerns continue to persist is anyone's guess. And while Google's wearable lineup has suffered from these high-profile bugs, including its AI Health Coach's early proclivity for hallucinations, the company's willingness to patch issues as they arise will likely keep Google's wearables popular. 

Pixel owners remain in the dark regarding the malfunction's source, as Google has yet to announce the reason behind the bug. However, help is on the way. On May 19, a Google spokesperson e-mailed Android Central to say that the company is "aware of the issue and [is] working on a fix." When such patches are likely to come in remains unknown. 

Some observers are speculating that the bug could have resulted from Google's push to make Google Health a widescale fitness platform. Fitbit will see its app undergo several changes as it migrates to its parent company's new Google Health App redesign.  Some have wondered whether the slew of malfunctions is linked to this migration, although such speculation has yet to be confirmed by Google. The update will occur automatically for users between May 19 and May 26, but several fan favorite features will be discontinued.

Although the app will continue to track users' sleep, the "Sleep Profile" function will no longer be offered. As such, users will no longer receive their monthly sleep animal, which prompted one unnamed writer's fiancé to jump for joy. Other key sleep features that won't be included are snore detection and estimated oxygen variation. Instead, users can check their oxygen saturation levels using the application's SpO2data. Several social aspects of the Fitbit application are also on the cutting room floor. At this point, Google Pixel wearers might be pleased if their sleep data is displayed at all.