Tech Advisor reports that Google is now rolling out a fix to the serious battery drain bug that plagued multiple Pixel Watch models over the past week, from the Pixel Watch 2 right up to the recently launched Pixel Watch 5.

The issue drastically accelerated battery drain, effectively halving battery life on affected watches — some users saw their effective runtime fall from 24 or even 48 hours down to just 12.

A few days ago, Google began responding to affected users on Reddit, acknowledging the problem: 'We have identified a battery drain issue, affecting a small number of Pixel Watch users, and are working to roll out a fix as soon as possible.'

Android Authority now reports that Google has confirmed a fix, which is rolling out immediately.

The contrast with the competition is stark: Xiaomi's upcoming Watch S5 41mm, per leaked specs published by Nokiamob, runs HyperOS instead of Wear OS specifically to trade a broad third-party app ecosystem for significantly extended battery life — up to eight days of normal use and 14 days in power-saving mode from a 590mAh battery.

A Wear OS bug that halved a day of runtime to half a day plays directly into that pitch.

In related news, Tech Advisor reports that Google has revealed it is working on a new status bar for Wear OS. Until now, Google's smartwatch UI granted apps the whole screen to display whatever they wanted.

From Wear OS 8, however, there will be a smartphone-like status bar at the very top of the Pixel Watch screen, displaying the time and status indicators.

The system status bar will automatically hide when you scroll through content, so it should not be too invasive, and it will reappear after two seconds of being idle.

Google is advising app developers to tweak their apps to keep the '12 o'clock' position free, and the feature can already be tried in the Wear OS 7.1 Beta Preview Emulator.

The episode shows Google responding quickly once the complaints mounted on Reddit, but it also underlines how fragile wearable battery life claims are — and how aggressively rivals like Xiaomi are courting buyers on endurance alone, with the leaked Watch S5 41mm expected at approximately €240 (CZK 5,469) according to retail leaks from Czechia reported by Nokiamob.