Next year might be the year we see Google release a smartwatch it's built. The claim comes from an unidentified person familiar with the matter and an Insider report. Google has its wearable platform since 2014, but this marks the first time the company is venturing into making hardware for the space.
The watch is codenamed Rohan and reportedly developed by Google's Pixel hardware team separate from Fitbit. It is unclear if the wearable will be called the Pixel Watch, but it will serve a similar purpose to the Pixel phones: showing an example to consumers and hardware partners what Google's software can do with the right hardware. It's expected to cost more than a Fitbit and will compete more directly with the Apple Watch, according to The Verge's source.
The watch will have basic fitness tracking features like step counting and a heart rate monitor. Google is also reportedly working on Fitbit integration into Wear OS (codenamed "Nightlight") with this new watch.
Google is revamping its smartwatch platform with Wear OS 3, which it developed with Samsung to merge Tizen into Google's platform. But the only device we've seen it on so far is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, which features Samsung's implementation of the platform instead of the pure Wear OS experience.