Android mods fans rejoice, it has been discovered that the Pixel Watch’s bootloader can be unlocked, but you will need a special cable or very firm hands.
One of the traditions of the Google Pixel series is that you’ve always been able to unlock the bootloader, which makes it easy to install your own custom Android ROM. This has made the Pixel series a fan favorite among the mod community, and many were hoping to see this tradition continue with the Pixel Watch.
On this front, there has been good news and bad news. In a statement provided to XDA Developers, Google confirmed that while it is possible to unlock the bootloader, doing so requires a special cable “not currently provided by Fitbit”.
As noted by a few Pixel Watch reviewers and early adopters, there are four pogo pins on the top side of the watch, inside the watch strap connector. The special Fitbit cable is supposed to either attach magnetically or possibly snap into place just like a regular Pixel Watch band.
However, without this official option available, resourceful developers/hackers have taken matters into their own hands. On Twitter, developer Shiny Quagsire He shared his own efforts to tweak the Pixel Watch, starting with how to unlock the bootloader.
To do this, the first step was to figure out exactly how to use those pogo pins, then cut and modify one end of the USB cable into individual wires. Three of the four cables are then carefully spaced to match the pogo pins and taped together. With that complete, it takes some gentle maneuvering to hold the temporary “connector” against the Pixel Watch’s pins.
Shiny Quagsire’s efforts were rewarded, getting a full ADB/Fastboot connection to the Pixel Watch via a modified USB cable, which, while superficial, is workable for simple experiments but not for flashing a new ROM. Once connected, the process of unlocking the bootloader was as simple as it is on every Pixel phone.
Just like the Pixel series phones, when you unlock the Pixel Watch bootloader, you are warned about it every time it restarts. This is an important security measure to make sure that anyone who runs mod/modified software on their watch or phone is well aware of it.
With this first attempt to unlock the Pixel Watch, it is clear that we are at the beginning of a new era of Wear OS smartwatches. With time, we hope the technologies improve — whether Fitbit releases the patch cable themselves or the community creates one of their own — and more interesting possibilities will emerge. For now, it’s fun to see the lengths some will go to in order to mod a device like the Pixel Watch.
More on Pixel Watch:
FTC: We use affiliate links to earn income. more.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: