Google Assistant’s Wear OS tile is now available with customizable shortcuts [Gallery]

After we spotted it in development earlier this year, Google has rolled out a new tile for Google Assistant that allows for custom shortcuts on Wear OS.

On both Wear OS 3 and Wear OS 4 watches, the Google Assistant tile provides access to the Assistant with a swipe, but the useful element here is instead the ability to add custom shortcuts that are accessible without an audible voice command or typing.

The tile, which first showed up on Pixel Watch 2 last week for us and is now appearing on the original Pixel Watch as well (still on Wear OS 3), has two slots for custom shortcuts. These can do virtually anything, from a simple request for the day’s weather to even handling smart home controls. Google lists out a bunch of suggested actions:

Set an alarm for 7 a.m.

Send a message

Set a 5 minute timer

What’s on my calendar?

Turn off the lights

Alternatively, you can set a fully custom request or question using voice or the QWERTY keyboard.

The actions themselves work almost instantly, with a command for turning off the lights taking about 10 seconds to process and actually shutting down my Philips Hue lights. But once the actions are set, you have to fully remove the tile to set new actions.

As mentioned, this appears to have been rolling out for a week or so at least. It works across Wear OS 3 and 4 and should work on Pixel Watch, Galaxy Watch, and any other modern watches. Assistant on Wear OS 2 was taken offline over the summer.