If you lift weights or run circuits with a Pixel Watch 3 or 4, the watch can now walk you through a routine one exercise at a time. Google started rolling out step-by-step workouts to the Pixel Watch 3 and newer on November 10. It first announced the feature with the Pixel Watch 5. Watches older than the Pixel Watch 3 aren't included.
What the watch does during a workout
Each exercise shows on the watch with its instructions, and the same step appears on your phone in sync. You log reps and weights from your wrist, and live metrics show on either screen. When you finish, the stats land in the Google Health app and on the watch.
Auto-progression, on by default, moves you to the next exercise once a set time or a trackable goal is done, with no button to press.
If Bluetooth drops mid-workout, Google's help page says you can carry on with either device, and the watch keeps tracking without an internet connection.
Where Premium comes in
Google Health Coach can build a routine for you, and Google's footnote says that needs a Google Health Premium subscription, sold separately. You can also build your own in the Google Health app: in the Fitness tab, pick Saved under Start workout, then Build a workout manually.
The help page marks only the Coach workouts "Premium only", and it lists custom routines among the workouts that the three supported watches run step by step. On our reading, a routine you build yourself plays on the watch without the subscription. Google doesn't spell that out, so check in the app before you pay.
Our take
Build one routine yourself before you think about Premium. In a gym, the useful parts are the guidance and the rep logging, and Google's pages tie the fee to the Coach that writes the plan. Consider Premium if you want Coach-generated routines, and check the subscription and device requirements in the app first.
