Owners Of Older Pixel Watches Could Be Losing A Major Safety Feature

Google is reportedly gearing up to discontinue an important safety feature from its older Pixel Watch LTE models. Although the company hasn't officially announced anything, folks at Android Authority spotted a couple of text strings in the code of the latest Pixel Watch app version, which indicate Google plans to stop supporting the Safety Signal feature. The text strings say: "Safety signal is going away" and "This feature will no longer be available soon." The feature is offered as part of the Google Health Premium subscription on the Pixel Watch 2 LTE and the Watch 3 LTE models in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Germany.

Safety Signal essentially offers cellular connectivity in certain safety-related features on Google's dime when you don't have an active carrier plan on the smartwatch. This can come in pretty handy in emergency situations when you don't have access to your phone and can't easily call for help. It remains to be seen when exactly this feature will disappear from the Pixel Watch models and whether Google has plans to replace it with another similar feature. The newer versions of the Google smartwatch — the Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Watch 5 — don't have to worry about Safety Signal, as they don't support the feature, and instead come with satellite SOS connectivity as a replacement for it. The same feature can't be offered on the older models because of hardware limitations.

As mentioned, Safety Signal helps when you don't have an active carrier plan on your Pixel Watch but need cellular connectivity in an emergency. It works with several of the built-in safety features, such as calls to and from emergency contacts, Safety Check, Emergency Sharing, Emergency SOS, and Fall Detection. However, you can't use it for normal cellular or data access. Many Pixel Watch users mention on Reddit that it was a big reason for them to pick up the LTE version of the Google smartwatch over the Wi-Fi-only variant and express disappointment over the fact that it seems to be going away. Users are also unhappy because Safety Signal is a part of the Google Health Premium subscription, and they will lose a feature for which they are already paying.

If you're worried about losing Safety Signal, the only way to ensure you remain connected to a cell tower in an emergency situation is to always have an active cell plan for your smartwatch, unless, of course, Google offers an alternative when it inevitably announces the discontinuation of Safety Signal. That said, it's unclear why Google is removing support for the feature. While the Pixel Watch 2 is losing software support in October 2026, the Pixel Watch 3 is still officially supported, suggesting that this might not be the reason.