Summary The Google Pixel Watch 2 is a capable fitness tracker for most people, tracking steps, heart rate, exercise, sleep, and stress in the Fitbit app.
A paid Fitbit Premium subscription unlocks additional features, but is not required for basic health tracking on the Pixel Watch 2.
Dedicated athletes may want better battery life or more specialty exercise features than the Pixel Watch 2 offers.
Quick answer: The Google Pixel Watch 2 tracks steps, heart rate, exercise, sleep, stress, and more, storing that data in the Google-owned Fitbit app. Its fitness-tracking features are good for an everyday Wear OS watch, but fitness enthusiasts might want something with better battery life or more dedicated fitness features like GPX map support.
The Google Pixel Watch 2 is one of two fully fledged smartwatches to feature Fitbit integration. With a name like Fitbit behind its health tracking, you’d be right to expect the Pixel Watch 2 to be a capable fitness tracker in its own right — and generally speaking, it is. Serious athletes might want something a little more purpose-built, but the Pixel Watch 2 does track exercise, sleep, stress, and more. With considerably improved battery life compared to the original Pixel Watch, the second-gen model is a good fitness tracker for most people.
How does the Pixel Watch 2’s fitness tracking stack up?
With a variety of health sensors and deep Fitbit integration, the Pixel Watch 2 offers a fitness tracking experience that’s in line with Fitbit’s dedicated high-end trackers, like the Sense 2. Google says the Pixel Watch 2 has a new multi-path optical heart rate sensor that’s the most accurate in any Fitbit-branded device to date. The watch tracks steps and heart rate, and can log 40 different types of exercise. It’ll automatically track several types of exercise including walking, running, and cycling, with manual tracking options available for the rest.
When worn to bed, the Pixel Watch 2 tracks your sleep, estimating which stage of sleep you’re in at any given moment and logging that info in the Fitbit app. With Fitbit Premium, the Pixel Watch 2 can generate a user Sleep Profile that provides additional insight into your sleep habits and guidance on how to improve them.
The Pixel Watch 2 also aims to track stress using a continuous electrodermal activity sensor that monitors the electrical activity in your skin for telltale signs of nervous system excitement, which can indicate stress. While that method of quantifying stress might not sound particularly meaningful, the watch also delivers notifications that prompt you to log your mood when potential stress responses are detected, a practice that might be beneficial for some.
Using a combination of activity, sleep, and stress data from the Pixel Watch 2, Fitbit generates a Daily Readiness Score from 1 to 100 that’s meant to show in a single number how ready for physical activity you are each day. Daily Readiness Scores are a Fitbit Premium feature, though, so you won’t get one without a paid membership.
Do I need Fitbit Premium to use the Pixel Watch 2?
Fitbit Premium is Fitbit’s paid service, which costs $10 per month (or $80 a year, billed annually). Most health tracking functionality on the Pixel Watch 2 does not require Fitbit Premium: step and activity tracking, sleep tracking, and stress monitoring are all included without a subscription.
A paid membership does confer additional benefits, though. With Premium, you’ll get a Daily Readiness Score each day, plus a monthly Sleep Profile for more insight into your sleep data. The membership also includes access to a library pre-recorded workouts and mindfulness content inside the Fitbit app. The Pixel Watch 2 comes with a six-month trial of Fitbit Premium for both new and lapsed users, but the trial period can’t be added to existing memberships.
What are the alternatives?
If all you’re after is a watch that counts your steps, any decent smartwatch will do a fine enough job; every Wear OS device worth its salt tracks activity and sleep. The Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 are the only Wear OS watches with Fitbit, but other watchmakers offer their own fitness platforms that work in similar ways. Samsung’s watches do have some functionality that’s only available when the watches are paired with a Samsung phone, though — you can’t use the Galaxy Watch 6’s EKG functionality without a Galaxy phone. The Pixel Watch 2 works the same across Android phones from all manufacturers.
There are also lots of good fitness trackers to choose from; what they lack in advanced software features, they typically make up for in long battery life. While the Pixel Watch 2 can make it about one full day on a charge, many dedicated fitness trackers can make it up to a full week. For more demanding users, athletes training for specific goals, Garmin makes a number of watches that last days on a single charge and, depending on the model, include features and training modes for specific sports, like trail running and triathlons.
The Google Pixel Watch 2 is generally as good a fitness tracker as any other Wear OS watch, though, and as we’ve touched on, only Google’s watches come with Fitbit integration. For everyone but serious athletes, the Pixel Watch 2 makes for a solid, stylish fitness tracker — as long as you don’t mind charging every day.
Is the Google Pixel Watch 2 a good fitness tracker?
