30:35
Welcome to Pixelated episode 102. I'm your host, Will Sattelberg. This week I'm reuniting with Damien and Abner after their whirlwind trip to Google I/O. They both catch me up on what I missed on the ground and offer some big-picture thoughts now that we're 1 week removed. Then it's my turn to talk about my review of the Fitbit Ace, Google's first display-less tracker designed to compete against Whoop. From tracking and sensors to bands and health coach, there's plenty to cover and it all starts after this word from our sponsor, Proton. Grab your phone and take a look at your app drawer right now. You've probably found yourself relying on these same old apps and services since the Nexus days. And what suited you best back then might
not be the right choice in 2026. Luckily, Proton can help bring you into a privacy-first ecosystem built for our modern age. Proton offers practically every service you could possibly need under the sun across every platform, including email, calendar, file storage, password management, document editors, and of course, a trusted VPN. Built with class-leading end-to-end encryption, Proton's entire suite is fast, intuitive, and secure. And export tools mean you don't need to worry about leaving data behind on those other apps. Pixelated listeners can save 30% off an annual subscription to Proton Unlimited, which includes 500 GB of cloud storage, custom email domains, a dedicated customer support team, and so, so much
more. It's what's best for your current now, not whatever you were using back in 2013. Upgrade to Proton today and save 30% on your annual subscription by heading to proton.me/9to5google or by clicking the link in the show notes. That's proton.me/9to5google. Thanks to Proton for sponsoring Pixelated. So, I'm back. Not too jet-lagged from traveling half the planet from Google I/O, I am slightly sunburned. I must admit, I am slightly sunburned. I didn't didn't put too much sunscreen on. Um you will a fantastic day. Like that's that's the thing they don't tell you. You will bake sitting in Shoreline. I mean I've come back from one I/O t-shirts. So, that's my new strategy for that.
I mean it was sensible, but I think in terms of an I/O, this easily one of the most fun events I've I've experienced. I think last year was pretty decent, but this has been far and away the most fun I've had at I/O. And I think and it's a bit weird, isn't it? Like in terms of the announcements, it's so AI heavy that you think it wouldn't be the case, but maybe the Android show leading into it is like the perfect way to get your to kind of get the heart the set the pulse racing before I/O. I don't know. Am I right in thinking about that or is that a weird way to think about it? Yeah, it was I have to say my I/O takeaway compared to at least the past 2 years and really last year with just the
first proper AI show. I would say the vibes are very chill in terms of the announcements weren't weren't too pie in the sky. They are actively shipping. They are here. So, the vibes are very chill. There was there felt from like a competitive standpoint that it not feel like Google was in a rush, that they were racing, that they were pressed by the competition. It just felt chill. I think they've hit their mature phase, probably a bit faster than expected, though at the same time 3 years in this new AI reality is a long time.
What uh besides it being chill, I guess what was like the overall cuz it's easy to get sucked into like the online reaction of things, I suppose, especially when you have so many people watching the live stream. So, I'm curious, you know, whether it's fellow journalists or anyone else, like kind of what was the feeling after the presentation after the main keynote on the ground? It's a weird one, isn't it? I feel like as someone who has gone from that first keynote that Abner alluded to a couple of years ago when it was like, "We're going to AI everything." to having some tangible products that people are using. It
definitely felt It definitely feels like IO is going more leaning even more heavily into the developer side of things, and it felt like there was a lot more developers to speak to after the keynote. In terms of the journalist reaction, I'm not actually sure, to be quite honest with you. For me, obviously, we had a bit of a briefing ahead of time. Right. And knowing things from the Android show kind of preparing us for what was going to be announced on stage. I was kind of like I'm kind of surprised the way Google keeps marketing some of these features.
I think we've spoken about it ad nauseam now that everything is an email or everything is a list or like a presentation. I think maybe there could be more tailored marketing or like kind of messaging around how AI can work cuz I definitely feel like I wanted to see more of like how an average person can truly use AI to like kind of improve their productivity. Like, from my from from my perspective. So, what I would say to that is So, it's Yes, this is what they're trying to pitch. The big message they're trying to pitch is agents, these things that developers and uh more business people are already using. It's now time
for regular users to use it. Uh we saw that at the launch of Gemini Spark, and that's actively rolling out. So, to I think Ben had a good post at the uh good uh opinion afterwards that this is starting they're starting to make it a bit more practical for people. And I think Google's messaging conveyed that in terms of like this is we're trying to find help for this. Google is defaulting to their helpful helpfulness messaging. Um so yes, we have these AI features in Gmail and more of your subscriber, but I think this Gemini spark thing, this agents, the idea of being able to offload tasks to people, this being able to offload tasks to bots, basically. I think that this is our first chance of seeing whether people actually
want this, how people adopt into their lives. This is Additionally, these agents, they're the first really new thing coming out of LLMs. Um like these other experiences like um you could uncheck to be view them. It's like advanced auto collector that help me write stuff. But these agents, they're the first really native thing to come out of LLMs, and I think that's going to be a very big test case to see how people adopt it. Are people ready to offload some of their tasks in their lives to AI? Um I think it would be best for most people kind of like to dip into it slowly, but obviously it's only available isn't it to the top is it the ultra subscribers? So the ones who are paying the most amount of money and only in the US. So I'll kind of save
judgment until I hear from people who are actually testing it out in the in the real world. But um I guess one of the bigger ones the bigger updates that came to everyone straight away, and we actually had it before the keynote was that brand new Gemini redesign. I'm I think this I think this is something that Google probably needed to do for a while, and they've gone ahead and done it. And I do like the look of the new interface. is very minimal compared to what we had before. It feels There's a YouTube-iness to it, like YouTube's own design language, thin out Well, they're kind of moving away from very thin icons. That was I guess the previous one. But, there are strays of that YouTube-ness in it. But,
yeah, this is a full redesign. It's been in testing for a bit, and I think we've talked about in the pod before, but I hope this is like their platform for the foreseeable future, because there was definitely a period where like the Gemini overlay changed two or three times in the matter of months. So, I hope this is now stable. I hope this is the platform for growing things. Yeah, like Damien said, they probably needed a full refresh, but I hope this is the foundation for the foreseeable future. Yeah, I mean, that also reminds me that what we're going to talk about in a little bit, but the redesign of Gemini kind of coincided as well with those roll out of those new icons that we talked about in the previous podcast. Like, the workspace
icon suite is everything feels like glowy. And I feel like that's that's kind of like a signature of what Google is doing right now. Um, in terms of like just talking more broadly about IO, I really I think the one the one feature outright that I didn't think mattered, and then seeing it on stage is good. That universal cart function is something that I genuinely can see myself using in future. Like, having something that tell tells gives me the price history or the insights on what is the cheapest time to buy things.
Like, I can genuinely see that being useful to people, cuz usually we're using tools to do this elsewhere. And having it done kind of natively within on your phone or on desktop or whatever, I think that's fantastic. I think that's a really cool utilization of AI. Like, this is the application I want to see. Things that actually do save my work. Not very explicitly AI. AI is making powering the use of suggestions, but it's it's just uh it's it's not explicitly about AI. Yeah, I think that's a good way of doing it. And I think that's what I personally think given I mean given the Pope's just written a big massive uh thing about and be becoming anti-AI.
I think anti-AI. I feel like we should have a little bit more of like the I think I could just go back to the messaging. Uh just ramming AI in that format doesn't always sell well. I think it's better when you have like these practical examples. And I think that's a really good practical example. I think again right you said help me right. I mean how often do you use help me right? I barely ever use it. Or maybe I'm in the minority there though. I guess. I'm absolutely in that opinion and I kind of still feel that, but I think uh one thing we're all writers. Maybe that's our bias there, but when most
people objectively hate writing anything, so maybe that's that's what one thing I've been told and that's kind of stuck with me, so. I know I haven't really answered your question properly there Will though. I think the reaction after the fact was still focused quite heavily on hardware. I think a lot of people were talking about the Android XR changes and stuff like that. I think That was a surprise. That was the big is another nice surprise. Yeah, I think uh there will always be room for hardware IO and I think talking about XR and talking about the new functions and forms that are going to come out is still part and parcel of
of a keynote of this kind of magnitude. So it was really nice to talk to people about and get differing opinions on augmented reality cuz I'm still I'm still kind of on the fence, but I think this is the first time I've seen it and I tried it it for the first time? Your whole team got to try it. I mean it's nice. I feel like this is the this is what I wanted from XR. I don't want a big bulky headset. I'm I mean, I'm a child of the '90s. We had We tried this before. This definitely feels like in glass I mean, I don't I wear sunglasses. I am but I don't wear reading glasses. So, I can maybe see someone with reading glasses being more in more kind of drawn to this. But, having things like that heads-up display for maps and
stuff look fantastic. And I'm really excited to see what that next wave looks like. Um I know we're probably So, yeah, you tried the monocular glasses where there's one display. And I think that what you're talking about is when you're starting navigation, turn-by-turn Google Maps, if you look down, you can see a full map. And wasn't it just like a video game? I know. I kept walking around telling everyone it's like Red Dead Redemption. It's like GTA. It is I think that's the closest approximation to it. And I yeah, I hope that becomes a bigger core component of what Google's trying to push in the next 6 to 8 months because it's like Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't think it's
particularly groundbreaking. It is very cool. I think Oh, that pains me to hear you say I don't think it's that I don't I can't imagine everyone's going to go suddenly go out and throw a pair of glasses on. Not specifically. Like this display technology My first takeaway 2 years ago when I tried this was that I was shocked that this display technology was ready and that Google has been working on it behind the scenes. And I guess that really puts in perspective how to most people a screen is just a screen and they won't really appreciate that all the work that it took to miniaturize this and put it in one of your eye. It's It's just another screen to them.
It definitely felt like another screen. I wonder if this is if part of the reason you get a reaction like the one you just got from Damian Abner. And this is to take nothing away from the technology. Uh I agree with you. I think it's really impressive that displays can be that small and look that way. But like I [clears throat] I think part of that disappointment comes from just the ongoing evolution of technology, right? Like when you when Steve Jobs gets up on stage and he's like I put a thousand songs in your pocket, that is a lot different than that little mini map that you can display on your smart watch is now in your glasses. It's like it Do you know what I mean? Like it's like it is They become smaller.
Exactly. It There is a big difference between forget your CD collection, forget your CD player, this thing in my hand that I'm holding that is the size of a deck of playing cards is now what you carry your music in. Versus like, "Oh, well, you already had all the navigation and I don't mean to use maps as the obvious example, but it is the obvious example. Oh, you already had this on every other device on your person. Now it is closer to your eyes." But that it does make it difficult to feel like it is the same sort of leap, I think. I also think it's just difficult for something that is inherently visual like individually visual. I you put it in front of your eyeballs. Very, very difficult to showcase that effectively.
Like without trying them yourself. So I can't I didn't I mean, pun intended here, I didn't have a frame of reference until I tried them on and then I was like, "Okay, I can understand why this is a big deal." And again, it's a lazy I know it's lazy to say seeing that mini map was like GTA like a video game, but I think for a lot of people that is what they were like, "Oh my god." They tie it to something they've experienced elsewhere and I think that is the closest approximation. I do I can 100% see this being useful um when traveling for instance. Like those live translations. Look Sadly Google didn't even really do a great deal of doing that in the demo section where they could have had posters in different languages. Yes, you spoke to
somebody and they translated for you in real time and that was fantastic. But I think being able to have like a poster or something similar and having it translated to you in real time would be I think that was a demo they showed off when they first unveiled Android XR um and XR glasses. I do want to see more of that because I think that's where the real world application might be useful to people. But yeah, they're probably going to price it out of us like Warby Parker Gentle Monster. They're not cheap glasses anyway, so they're going to be extortionate. Um hopefully Samsung can bring that price ceiling down a little bit because I do think um I hope it isn't like a thousand dollar a thousand pound entry price for these
in air quotes high-end options. I sort of not to keep going back to this, but I sort of wish that um you know, I think the display is cool and even on the display this glasses, right? Like I think they present cool. Well, so that's that's what I was going to say is that I wish um I think these companies are doing themselves a disservice by not kind of pushing them as a like and maybe the tech maybe the sound quality just isn't there yet. I have not used them, but like push them as like class like you're you always have earbuds in now. Like will do that. They will absolutely do I feel like they need to start now.
Like that is in my opinion, you know, if I'm talking about things that um sort of shape how I'm what I'm carrying through the day or whatever, right? Like it's the thing I think about is like oh, if you made it so that I never need to think about bringing a pair of earbuds again, like that is the biggest selling point to me more so than we moved the map from your wrist or your pocket to your eyes, you know? Like that's that's I would love to see them sort of be like hey, we are not just including speakers in this, but we are making sure that audio you know, through bone conduction or whatever is as good as it can be.
I mean, that you said audio there and my ears have pricked up and my brain is tingling over this. Like, one thing that's literally just come to me right now while we're talking about it is there was absolutely zero mention of Google Home in this new Gemini Home speaker. Like, why have we not heard from this yet? I fully expected I don't even know why I've just remembered it now. This could be a the remnants of jet lag. Is that we heard nothing about it at all at IO. We heard zero. I mean, it shouldn't it would be available right now. Didn't they say spring 2026? I thought they would dedicate a section to it.
They have 3 weeks. a few Yeah, they have a few weeks. Okay. I think they're going to miss it, but who knows? Like, I summer. To me, it's summer. We're we're on the cusp of June. We're 6 months into the year. Surely that's that summer period. Like, I feel like it's a bit weird that Google didn't even show it off. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to show off this hardware. No, I agree. Do you know what I mean? But The No, the lack of this in Abner, you will I feel like you might disagree with me on this and I'm I'm obviously speculating on nothing, but like the absence of this the speaker that they had
already announced many months ago at this event made me that this very Gemini focused event made me go like not even a mention of it. I'm like, uh something wrong here? Like, I'm not saying there is something wrong, but this was the moment where I went, uh you guys should have brought this up by now. Like, it's starting to feel a little bit like you're dragging it out. not a hardware. I'm sure the hardware No, I think it's a Gemini is not working the way they want it to be working thing. Maybe our Gemini has progressed so much that it isn't the product that it was Could be that were initially announcing it. I'm Okay, I'm going to be the I'm going to play the positive side of the argument here and say I probably is
more towards that and maybe they need a little bit more processing power to put new models in, I guess. Um but yeah, that the all of this integration with Gemini is great, but I think again, hardware for me kind of always wins and I think that the new glasses coming out, I'm very excited now. Yeah. Now I've tried them to see what happens. To wrap that section up, so the glass the first we got the Warby Parker and Gentle Monsters made by Samsung powered by Qualcomm. Uh we got the first two designs. We officially have a launch period, I guess, coming this fall. Um These are the audio-only glasses first and to your point well about headphones, I'm sure that will have to be a big marketing point so. about Yeah.
headphones. The headphone cases that they're still kind of big, honestly. Mhm. I mean, even the smallest ones I'm thinking of, you know, I have the Pixel Buds 2A on my desk at the moment. Like that's not a large case by any means, but No, but it still doesn't fit in your pocket. Yeah, it's something I have to put in my pocket and have to think about. bulbous, yeah. Exactly. And so the And look, I am one of those people who it's like I love, oh my god, the invention of smart locks. Do you know what the smart lock brought me? The ability to leave my house without a key. That is the biggest Like I That's all I care about is
like, oh, I'm going on a walk. I'll be back in 45 minutes. I don't need to carry keys on me. It's great. It's awesome. Um and I feel the same about like, you know, the less stuff I mean, that's why like cellular smartwatches is I love like going on runs or walks without anything on me while still also being connected in case of an emergency or so on and so on and the ability to basically like with smart glasses that have good bone conduction speakers be like, um oh, hey, I'll be back in you know, an hour. I'm going for a walk and just walk out the door because I have my smartwatch and I have my smart glasses on and I don't need to think about anything. That is sort of the I It's not obviously not quite to the degree, but it is
closer to the iPod-esque uh leap in tech that I'm envisioning. Yeah. Do you think to play devil's advocate, do you think that you both as glasses wearers have this probably further in your I say further, more kind of How would I describe it? I'm I'm flailing for words. This is definitely some sort of jet like kicking it. Is it that you are glasses wearers, so you're more personally invested in the form factor than someone like me who where I think I mean, I wore glasses as a child. I don't need them now, and I probably will later into my life need glasses. It for me it's finding an integration until I saw it, it was like I don't see the utility there. But hearing you both talk effusively about it is making me more excited.
That is a big hurdle. Obviously, then again, most people are familiar with sunglasses. So, yeah, I would be so curious to see adoption stats based on whether people the buyers are already wearing glasses versus non-glasses wearers. But yeah, that will be a big thing, especially as Google's push, which I'm sure they'll go into more when they announce this. These are you're supposed They want you to wear these all day. They're not like Wayfarer style sunglasses where you just wear them when you're doing something, when you're going outside. So, the term was intelligent eyewear, which is I have to sit on that a bit about whether that's a good branding or whatever.
Intelligent eyewear is that Okay, that is just quick run-through of the seller person get different term for smart glasses. No, but it's interesting. It's kind of like I think tracking in the long term. The original They originally called it AI glasses, but I think that's an awful idea. Yeah, in the Yeah, I thought that was a horrible idea when they did Glass year two. But I especially in this moment where AI societal AI reckonings, etc., etc., it does feel like we might they are moving to intelligent iOS a thing
and it's just so we'll see where that goes. Yeah, I like the holistic way that Google's kind of changing that if you're going to throw AI into everything it needs to be more holistic the way they're describing it. I prefer it that way feel definitely feels less I mean you can be wrong there's a lot of people who disagree with that. Yeah, yeah. And honestly like is that going well? I know they are selling they're selling a lot but is this damaging to the way Ray Bans brand? Possibly. Very I don't even think possibly I think 100% yeah, that there is I think people have created slurs for people who wear these meta Ray Bans so Yeah, Ray Bans these so specifically tied to that Ray Bans now so
Yeah. We'll see how that goes. I mean one more thing I want to talk about IO before we get into the Fitbit and cuz I'm intrigued to hear your guys experiences as soon as we move on we just picked up their retail unit. Android Halo was teased. God I don't know much about what this is going to be. It looks really strange. It was a very brief teaser about 9 seconds of a little animation. Android mentioned in keynote is that about the limit of it? Probably. So it's okay so officially it is to show live updates and when you're when Gemini is doing task automation to see that live progress indicator.
I feel like this is what this is actually is probably the What is it called in iOS dynamic island? That's probably that Okay, it still annoys me how Android makers try to copy dynamic island. The key of dynamic island is that there's a physical hardware thing that Apple is trying to overcome. It is they and they adopted they read into that. But I with Android, they just put in this like live updates today. They just appear in the status bar. It's There's not enough height. That's still annoys me to no end. Well, well, I guess we'll find out more later this year. I mean, it would be a great shock if it wasn't detailed more deeply when the Pixel 11 series, which we
And what its relation to Pixel Grow is, if any. Yeah. Yeah, 100% 100%. But um yeah, let's um let's get into some new hardware, as I say. It's always the most fun bit for me. Uh Fitbit Air has now been made available publicly. You can go out and buy one today. I'm wearing my fog version. I know, Will, that you picked the best color as well. You're a fog guy. No, I went out and got a fog one, too. We're all fog gang, right? fog. It's awesome. Um tell me cuz I This is perfectly timed cuz I've only read a few paragraphs of your review.
It's just gone live as of this podcast being live as well. Um go read it. The first four paragraphs are fantastic, but we're going to hear from the man himself. Tell me a little bit about this about your initial thoughts when you first opened this because my experience was that wow, this is a lot more minimal than I expected. Mhm. Yeah, I feel like the best way I can open sort of a hardware conversation is to tell you guys that this is the only sleep tracker I've ever worn that I have found comfortable enough to not be annoying during the night. I feel like that's like a good starting place of like what I think of this hardware because it's like you know, I have worn I basically only do sleep tracking when I'm reviewing wearables because you have
No, you're right. That's the only way to do it. Amateur hour. All this is all amateur hour from tree sleep tracker me. Well, so it's okay. I For me, I can value what people get out of sleep tracking. For I always feel like I just like I know when I've gone to bed too late or woken up too early or you know, didn't have a good night's rest like I the sleep tracker will definitely tell you those things like sooner than maybe you'll realize when you get out of bed and you shower and then you're like I the coffee is just not kicking in today, but uh but largely speaking it's basically been like you know, the data I'm gathering is not um not doesn't give me enough to change my own habits or lifestyle in exchange for
any amount of discomfort I might feel in my wrist and I just I like because I have a smart watch on all day or a regular watch on all day not to mention this band cuz I'm essentially wearing things on both wrists right now. I like being able at the end of the day to be like nothing on my wrists going to bed. hardware right. That is my signal for the weekend for years. I don't wear my smart watch when it's the weekend like that's that's a sign that I can sleep in. But so the way I'm integrating the the Fitbit Air is during the day I'm wearing the Pixel Watch and then once I'm off hours, I put on the Fitbit Air and I wear it to sleep and I take it off when I wake up. And it's perfect for that to be clear.
Like that is exactly a the use case I think Google wants you to have because it means you bought two wearables from them, but it also like it just is like it is like a really sensible way to be like oh, I you know, I have my standard Pixel Watch for during the day when I need notifications or whatever and it's doing all the fitness tracking in the background and then at night it's like well, I don't you know, I don't even want to mess with do not disturb or anything like that. I just want to take my watch off well, exactly and so it's like you can just throw this on and it's the only thing it can buzz you for is if you set an alarm. Like that's that's That's Um So, Will, you wear a smart watch every day. Well, and you
still have the benefit of two wrists. Um but how has it been going from a tracker to a smart watch? Because from Yeah. because for me, it's I just miss the time. Yeah. I mean, it's it's truly anytime I don't So, this is I'm speaking more so um in the evening and at night when I have switched to just wearing the Fitbit Air cuz I do tend to wear it on my non or I wear it on my dominant hand and then have a smart uh smart watch or a regular watch on my non-dominant hand. So, at night there's nothing, you know, let's say 8:00 p.m. or something. I have switched to just wearing the Fitbit Air. Um I will say uh including like last night
like is the most recent. So, even though I've had this thing for two a little over 2 weeks now, it's still happening. Last night, I went to check my check the time, looked at my wrist, looked at a fabric band, did not learn what the time was because there is no clock on this thing. I've done that so many times. It's I it's it's I don't think I'll ever I unless I stop wearing a watch completely, I'll never unlearn that behavior. I've been wearing a watch since I was like 10, so it's not going to happen. Um but can't get over the fact that this is the company that bought Pebble and I've never used an e-ink in any of the technology.
Dude, I'll take 12 LEDs LED dots to emit this fell out numbers. Like I felt that way about Loop, too. Um Nike Fuel Band was uh a real classic, but yeah. Shame. But um yeah, I mean, in terms of So, aside from the clock thing, in terms of like the actual fitness tracking, um you know, you lose a couple sensors compared to like more fully fledged smart watches, but this has pretty much everything that you would want. I have started, especially when weight lifting, I will manually start uh fitness tracking within the app, but I have not uh I have not manually started runs or walks, and it has actually You know what? I took a walk
last night that I'm now realizing it might not have detected. Let me see. Okay, I did do a walk last night that it straight up did not detect, uh which had I not scheduled my review out prior to this, it probably would have been in the review. But um but I should also say that is not a non-premium account that I have switched to, which is its own other thing we can talk later about in the thing, but um it largely speaking it has tracked my walks and runs uh app with absolutely no problem. In fact, I'm actually really shocked at how accurate uh its run tracking has its automated run tracking has been, considering I'm going out without a phone on me. So, it's just using motion cuz there's no
GPS. It's just using I guess like motion and time basically, and getting my distance pretty much dead on uh even discounting like it will even know like oh, he's walk It's like he's in a walking cool down now. I can stop counting this as a run. Uh which is inter- That's it's really excellent auto tracking, uh which is unique in a device like this where you have absolutely no way to interact with the device. So, I've been very pleasantly surprised about its um fitness tracking. I really don't feel like you're getting much of a downgrade compared to uh you know, even a Pixel Watch unless you run phone-less like I do and need it for In that regards, do you think the I mean, who do you think the target market here is? Because obviously, you
both mentioned sleep tracking. I personally am kind of I've been wearing it to sleep cuz it's comfortable, yeah, not because I care about my sleep tracking, because I kind of know like Will said, I can wake up 5 minutes. I know if I've had a bad night's sleep. You and me are in the same boat on that. Yeah. I feel like the data doesn't mean anything to me. Oh, no, I've had 6 hours sleep. Well, I know that. I know when I went to sleep. I know when I woke up. Like I would say about that is like in the context of the health coach, it does help personalize and adjust Um It does, yeah. for that. But more broadly, I think as society as a health thing, like I feel like s- sensors like this, like the
Fitbit Air that are tiny and discreet, like you'll I don't know, in 10 years, I feel like it will become the norm that this is something that everybody is wearing, either this or smart watch, just from a health perspective that your health provider wants to see. And actually, that's something AI can be good at something at analyzing that quickly and making it available for your health provider. I just think as a society, like the rise of small, cheap health sensors will be just incredible for health care. Um I mean, I can be I can whitewash that or wash that away. So, I live in the UK, so we have a National Health Service, so I don't think it's really something that it's something that would work here. service?
I think Yeah, I think You get offered health services on a national And you don't need to wear a wristband. I think um I can completely understand from that the health care provider perspective, but it is kind of an alien concept to me in some way. It's because I have never once felt the need that I mean, it helps that my partner's a nurse as well, so I kind of she's like, "Why you being a hypochondriac? There's nothing wrong with you." Um That's a big caveat. I think that's a another big caveat. But yeah, I can I do feel like if we'd have we probably would have hit that phase a while ago. Then again, there's a lot of people out there wearing Apple Watches
anyway. So, where is this health data being analyzed directly by anyone? I don't know. It I can completely see your argument, Abner, but at the same time I'm like we probably need a massive leap before it reaches a stage where everybody's wearing the Fitbit Air 3 or whatever it is. I think without a GPS I'm I'm kind of like, yeah, how are we analyzing the accuracy of it? Do we know Yeah. Do we know how accurate it is compared to the Pixel Watch? Have you been out and tested the Pixel Watch and or another smartwatch similar to that?
I'm wearing an Apple Watch with mine uh purely mostly so that I am able to like I'm not because when you're wearing a Pixel Watch and a and the Fitbit Air together, they're not like they do work together, but they're not like tracking different uh data together. Like it's not like um the uh comparison I would use is if you buy a Galaxy Watch 8 and a Galaxy Ring um that they will like uh what is it? The watch will do more of the fitness processing if you're wearing them at the same time to save battery life on the ring. That is not happening here. They're they're basically just tracking the same data and just pulling from one of the sources.
Um so I used uh my Apple Watch uh because obviously that is a completely separate profile, right? Completely separate like it the Fitbit Air's eyes I am only wearing the Fitbit Air and the Apple Watch's eyes I'm only wearing the Apple Watch and so I'm able to use these uh that basis as a comparison point. Um and I mean part of the problem here is that like how am I supposed to know if the Apple Watch is accurate as well, right? But I would say that like for the most part um you know, uh the distances and everything uh lined up perfectly on this, you know, compared to the cellular uh plus GPS Apple Watch compared to a non-cellular, non-LTE connected uh Fitbit Air, not even Bluetooth connected. Again, I was running no phone
on me. It's not connected to anything. And the only difference typically if I would see a difference in mileage, it was slim. It was you know, give or take 0.1 miles basically and it usually had to do with like Oh, like you know, the Fitbit tracked the three more minutes of me walking than the than when I stopped the workout on the Apple Watch manually or whatever. But like you know, heart rate was dead on between the two devices, you know, give or take one beat per minute. Uh the um I'm I'm trying to think of what other metrics. I just you know, pace was fairly accurate. Um uh between the two. Again, give or take probably 10 or 15 seconds, but compared considering the lack of sensors on the watch for GPS and being connected at all times,
I'm uh I'm I'm impressed by its fitness tracking. Especially for $100. I mean, you ask who this is for. I think Google wants this to be for anybody and everybody who wants a fitness tracker and has not been sold by a smart watch or maybe specifically doesn't want a smart watch because they don't want a thing strapped to their wrist buzzing all the time. There's a cyclicalness to this that it's Okay, the hardware, it's good. It's excellent. It's Fitbit could have made this anytime in the past five years. you say that. I my first thought was this feels like a throwback, but in a good way in like the best way possible. I this is so much better than it would have been five years ago because like the battery life is insane. The fact
that I mean, this thing is so small and light. I feel like everybody I talked to who unboxes this thing is like I mean, literally Ben yesterday like DM'd me and was like oh, I guess I just didn't realize how small this thing is. It's it's I genuinely didn't. I think I opened the box and I was like, when the box came in it was small I was like, yeah, that's fair enough. That's that's a regular box size. That makes sense. But it's about the same size as the um Pixel Buds. Pixel Buds, yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I'm so surprised at how thin the sensor arrays in the back of it. Exactly. And it just 5 years ago this would have been twice the size. And so I think it does make a difference that this is launching now.
Um you know, but in terms of battery life and I know where we're going to, but in terms of battery life like you know, I actually think Google has undersold the battery life on this thing. They're saying up to a week. I'm I'm seeing, you know, probably closer to 8 or 9 days uh on a charge. Um and the thing, you know, you throw this thing on the charger for 20 minutes while you're showering, you'll be good for another 4 days. Like truly. Yeah. Um you like battery life is not a concern. Yeah, the charger is it's honestly my favorite Pixel Watch 4 charger. Yes, correct. I it's it's very similar.
It's USB-C on the one side. You Finally. It Well, in the nice thing is that like again, it's it you know, I could see some people maybe being annoyed that it's another proprietary charger that you're plugging this thing into, but like unless you were going on a 2-week vacation, you do not need to bring this with you on a trip. You could go on a week-long vacation and as long as you're leaving at 100%, I do not think this thing will die on you. And so like all of that comes together into a $100 package that I think is like I if you want a fitness tracker, thumbs up. The real question marks and not even thumbs down, just question marks come in on health coach, which I think is where we're going. to do the bands first before
Oh, yeah, really quickly on the bands. Um the performance band is the default. It's like a very lightweight fabric band. Uh it's the best of the three. Uh yeah, Velcro which I think they've knocked it out of the park. I think that is it is the best arguably one of the best bands I've had on a the default band. It's better To me, I genuinely think it's better than the original the Pixel 4 default band. Yeah, you're saying something. Yeah. Um so like the good news is you are when you buy this $100 wearable, you are getting the best band. Uh active is a very run-of-the-mill silicone band. There's nothing special
about it. Um it is not using the same like slightly upgraded material that like this the Pixel Watch band uses. It's just silicone and there's no like holes in it. So I found it pretty unbreathable and not super comfortable. I really only wore it when I was like actively running and I was really only doing that to avoid making like the fabric band sweaty. And to be honest with you, I actually did uh I got What did I got something on this on the band and I cleaned it and it cleaned really easily. And so I would almost suggest if even if you unless you are running, you know, every day, uh you could probably get away with just running with the performance band on and cleaning it every few weeks. And then uh
or you know, whenever it's needed. I have no idea how frequently you would need it depending on how you're sweating. Uh the final band is elevated. This is somehow I found this out right before we started recording a $50 band. I did not know that this band is half the price of the actual wearable. Do not buy this band. It is not good. Uh it is not comfortable. It is designed to be uh like dressier. I don't think it's like I wouldn't it looks like a fitness tracker still. It doesn't it's not going to blend in with your suit at a wedding. And
uh it doesn't it's like really finicky to get like a good fit. In fact, I like very rarely had a good fit uh wearing this thing. I know Yeah, spend your $35 on another performance with band basically. I mean, you can buy the active band. You can buy the active band, but yeah. Get another color. No, I actually That's a great point. Just go buy a second performance band. Use that as your like workout band Oh. and like there you go. Like cuz honestly, you're you're going to have a better time if you just stick with performance. That's the best Swapping bands is so simple. It's really easy. So the Apple Watch has a bad band switch mechanism because it's just a straight slide. The Pixel Watch the curvature actively impacts it and I
really don't like that. It's it's a cool idea on the Pixel Watch. It's like so over-engineered that it's like a little fiddly. Yeah. Mhm. Uh I think um I think in a few months time we'll probably get third-party bands are very cheap. I think maybe uh the cheaper ones have been caught off guard or the people have been caught off guard with the this release. So we'll probably get some cheap stuff soon. Um but I yeah, I think all in all for the band side of things, I don't think Google could have done any more. I think it blends in nicely.
I've got a few people asking me what it is. They think it's like I don't know if you guys had them in the States, but you have the Livestrong bands back in the day. Oh yeah. Someone's asked me if it's a Someone asked me who So someone said is this a what charity is it for? I was like, "No, it's a That is such a fresh Because it's so nice and compact, but like I'm wearing it on my dominant wrist as well. So I do agree with your sentiment before where I keep looking for a time. But um I yeah, I You it seems like a fantastic first attempt at a Whoop competitor even though what is it? A third of the price?
I It's kind of like more so because you have to pay for Whoop is 320 whatever for the year, but then you're paying yearly which you don't have to do with this. You can pay a one-time payment of $100 and you're good to go. Just touching back on Google Health for a moment cuz this with the launch of the Fitbit app. It's a brand new rebrand of the Fitbit application, new platform, new icon. I love the UI. I think the UI is fantastic. It definitely feels to me a lot more welcoming than the Fitbit app. Getting that key information at a glance as well.
Honestly, previously the old three-tab app, you spent most of your time in the main feed. And now it's you actively will switch to the sleep fitness one and your health tab. Uh so, it's a nice transition on my to me. Um yeah, it's a good redesign visually. I feel really strongly about this hardware. Like I'm very pleasantly, you know, bands band complaints aside, I feel very strongly about this hardware. I feel less sure about the subscription portion of the software. Like I agree with you guys. I like the app as well. Um it's it's you know, I've ran into some issues with health coach as you are as one is wants to do with using an LLM base
uh well, anything LLM based really, because you're just going to run into hallucinations sometimes. And the issue is that like it's not even a thing that you can recreate on your end, right? So, it's like when we're all testing and comparing these things, it is difficult to be like, well, I saw that or I didn't see that. And so, um I do think Abner and I are going to kind of fall in different places on health coach, and I don't think either of our uh opinions are but you know, more important than the other or whatever. Um I have a list in the review that I think is worth reading, but basically I over the last couple weeks and it has gotten better as I've used it. It's gotten you know, the hallucination count has
has reduced. But um you know, right off the bat uh like day two, it made up a run I didn't do. Um it got very confused one day about how Fitbit counts it's Oh, we you know, we should set up health coach. By the way, it's it's an LLM tool that is built to give you recommendations on your fitness, on your goals, on your day, you know, like I've never mentioned the sleep tracking. Like it builds a lot of that stuff into telling you what to do on your day to meet your fitness goals. So, that's that's what it's trying to do. It's basically Gemini, but solely for health and fitness. And uh so yeah, so it got very confused about Fitbit's
you know, weekly counts, like what counts as a week. It started forgetting some workouts that I did. Um you know, it fully made up a kickboxing session out of thin air that it then gave me it took me an entire day to delete from my account cuz it kept giving me errors. A lot of this happened in the first week or so, and I would say that like in the second week, despite like you know, eagle eye on everything that this thing is saying, the errors absolutely decreased over time. Whether again, but I don't know if that's Is that the LLM learning? Is that just luck? Is that straight up just like I'm like pulling lucky draws from this prediction engine? I don't know. And so you know, I'm sort of at the at my conclusion is sort of to
try it. If you're buying one of these, you get 3 months free. So, like I don't think there's anything wrong with trying it as long as you set a reminder to cancel the subscription or at least at the very least to remind yourself of when the trial is ending. Uh and if it works for you, it works for you. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. I you know, I've switched to a non-premium account because we're going to sort of run a second opinion piece or you know, quasi review of how works without the premium subscription, without health coach and everything. And I would be lying if I said I didn't miss it a little bit just because there is so much detail it provides in some of its responses, some of it useful and some of it not. Um but without it the app feels
extremely sparse uh in comparison. Uh like the new app is built so heavily around health coach that it is surprising how empty it feels once it's not there. And I suppose that's what Google wants you to feel because they want you to pay your $10 a month for it. Um but yeah, I'm I'm I'm mixed. I'm mixed, I would say. I think uh at the ending of your review it was uh like if there are mistakes you want them to be your own. So I like that. I like that sentiment. It's I think most people don't have a coach, um a health coach, a fitness coach. Um I think most for most people that experience is new. And the general premise behind AI is that it can bring these experiences to more people because it's not a thing. It's it's it's not a person, it's a thing. So I think
there is there's absolutely a mentality shift that you have to take when using something like health coach. For me personally, it started with Gemini. Um I had a post a few weeks back about the mundane absurdity of telling Gemini what's happening in your life. And base and giving it more information. Mhm. I think most people need that shift to occur it's especially in the smaller context of a health coach. When you tell the health coach that you're feeling sick or that you're what you have to tell it these things, you have to tell the minutiae of your life that you to be honest at the beginning you feel stupid that you're telling this non-sentient thing that you're feeling under the weather or whatever.
Mhm. It requires a lot of input. And I and it to your point, like this Google really does have 3 months to really get how to really fine-tune health coach to a point where you want to subscribe to it though. It's now part of AI Pro too. So, if it's there, it's there. But for everybody else. True. Yeah. The you have to give it a lot of data and I'm mixed on how well Google is messaging that. It really like when it gives you these summaries at the end of the at the start of the day that it really wants you to talk to it. And again, to me in the beginning it felt silly to uh to respond to oh, I'm feeling well or to confirm that yes, I'm down for a run today. Um you have to give it a lot more data and I do wonder if it if like a Gemini Live
experience is slightly better for this. Uh but you it's it's it's not just smart suggestions in the way that products before LLMs offer you smart suggestions. It's it's an interactivity. It's it's a chat but it's a conversation in a way that technology hasn't been in the past. And I do think this is a good test scenario of having a personal coach as like people familiar with the idea of a coach, people idea of a familiar idea of an assistant even though most people don't have that. So, I would say you it requires you to give a bit more input into the product than you expect. But I think at the end of the day, there is something really valuable, really
powerful there. It what once you can get over the hump of like why am I telling this I'm sick? I guess I wonder if cuz I agree with you. I do think you're going to have to sort of, you know, if I can make what you're saying sound more negative, which I don't necessarily mean to, but you kind of have to baby-sit it, at least at the beginning. Yeah, that's absolutely fair. By beginning I mean like you know, again, I've had this thing for 2 weeks. I would still say I would be if I was still on the account with premium, I would still be baby-sitting it. Like you're probably going to baby-sit it for a month. And
I think this would have been a really good idea or really good timing for Google to have rolled out something that I would like to see chatbot developers do more of, which is have more and they have a little bit of this in the main app, but have like constant preset responses I can give this thing. Um and again, they have some quick response, but the second you're in the actual chat interface, it's very like it feels very much like Gemini. I think Google should have leaned into this to be like every single response is going to have like four different auto-generated responses the user can hit with a butt with a tap of a button. And that way if we are predicting how the user
feels, they don't have to type it out. And then the fifth one can be let me type out my own response or whatever. Just to streamline a lot of that baby-sitting. I've definitely felt that in the Gemini app overall, too. It's exactly. It's just I guess I just wish it was like I'm tired of talking to robots. the light way. Yeah. And now and again, like I said, it will feel stupid for the a bit, but if you can get over that, there is talking to it. And I was cynical about this, too. It's why are you talking to something that is a low that yes, is a robot, but if can get over that, I think it unlocks a lot of just from a pure user experience standpoint, UI standpoint, it unlocks a lot of value that is not obvious and it
it does require more commitment than you would think for a technology, but yeah. If you get there. Yeah, I would love to see look, I'm obviously, like I said, I'm a very mixed bag on this stuff and I find I'm very unforgiving about hallucinations when it comes to health data and fitness data. Like I'm I'm very Like most people. Yeah, I don't think that's I think that's the standard should be like you don't get to get away with making up a 6-mile run for me because now I don't know what else you're going to make up for me. And like again, some of that stuff can be trained out through the use of memory and I have I haven't had this thing long enough and in fact, again, I'm on a non-premium account now, so I don't know how well
this thing's pre memory will work if it is, you know, what level of Gemini memory is this thing at. Um, but like that stuff's going to matter. It's going to need to keep memory of every single user using it, which is presumably why Google has it as a paid feature, but it's just like it's going to be tricky. It's it's you're going to have moments where you're like, I didn't do that yesterday or you know, even little stuff like it's it really wants like you know, to your point, Abner, about having to like kind of train it and like give it lots of information like it does it really wants you to like take it easy in a way where I'm like, man, I know I did like a 35-minute weightlifting ex like thing yesterday.
That's not that long. I don't need to rest today. Like I can I don't need to just go on a walk. Like it's it's stuff like that where it's like you know, I'm 30. I feel like I know my own body pretty well in a way that it can feel frustrating to have to type out a bunch of messages over a month's worth of use to a chatbot to be like here's how my body works. And maybe that's worth it to some people. I'm not trying to take away from that. I'm just I'm more like I wish Google had built in a streamlined process for this that made it so at the very least I didn't have to feel like I was texting constantly with an AI bot to improve my health tracking.
Mhm. Yeah, I guess we'll see how it pans out over time. Sure, 100% time. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's the first iteration, isn't it? So I have no doubt that it will improve over time. Um I agree with you that sometimes um I feel like from what I can see so far it does err on the side of caution where it's like don't overexert yourself and it's like well, I can do this I can overexert myself. I know what I'm doing. Exactly. And how do you define overexertion um when it doesn't really know have enough data about you. But yeah, that's um that's the fit That's Fitbit. That's the um AI health coach, the Google health application. And uh yeah, it's it's been a
a deep dive into all things um Fitbit and IO and we're excited to see what you guys think about the devices. Go read Will's fantastic review. Um it's definitely a long read. It's one of those ones where you get the full details on just what this device can do for you. And I think at $99 it's it's a snip. I think it's 85 pound here in the UK and there's some decent pre-order deals as well. Um I just want to say thanks for joining me guys. I know we've we've kind of rambled on a lot about a lot of different things and we've ended up at the fitness side of Google's product portfolio today, which is quite rare for us, I guess. Um
yeah. Uh for from following on from a ridiculously hot IO to a ridiculously hot topic of Fitbit and fitness. Thanks, guys, and uh I'll speak to you soon. Bye. Thanks for listening to Pixel Loaded, a 9to5Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice, and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.
