Heads-up: How you answer calls with your Pixel Watch is changing

Muscle memory is a tricky thing. Getting into a routine of repeating the same motion, over and over, can definitely make some tasks a lot easier. But there’s a flip side to that, especially when we’re dealing with the evolution of software interfaces, and one little change can be all it takes to render that stored knowledge useless, forcing us to relearn habits. That’s just what some Pixel Watch users may be facing, and we wanted to let you know about a rearrangement going on with the UI for receiving calls.

This all seems connected to Wear OS picking up support for Android’s new Calling Cards. Back near the start of the year we saw Wear OS getting ready to embrace Calling Cards, and just a month later, Calling Card support first started rolling out.

It seems that Google’s been taking its sweet time with pushing that update out to everyone’s Pixel Watch, though, as we’re only now just starting to see it on some of our devices. And as it lands, we’re also taking notice that Google’s used this opportunity to shuffle around the controls for answering or rejecting a call:

Instead of that “pick up” button down at the bottom of your Watch’s screen, it’s now over on the side, straddling the user photo with the “reject” button. Similarly, the overflow button with the option for responding with a text finds a new home down below.

That’s not a huge change, to be fair — this is a matter of sliding your finger over another centimeter. But if you’re also in the habit of screening a lot of calls on your Watch, we can still imagine this might take a little getting used to. If you haven’t noticed this new UI just yet, keep an eye out for it, because it’s on its way