Morning Brief on the Pixel Watch 3 is a great idea but poorly executed

To be clear, I am not a morning person by nature, but years of obligational early starts have trained me to handle waking up fairly well. I may have insane bed hair, and I will definitely not be able to see my own hands until I locate my glasses, but I do functionally adhere to the proverbial “up and at ’em.” In other words, I like to get my day started at a clip because if I’m getting up, then it might as well be for a reason. So, when Google announced the new Morning Brief feature headed to the Pixel Watch 3, I was excited to see a tool that would join me from groggy to caffeinated. Instead, the inconsistency of the new brief has left me wondering if even a smartwatch tool can hit snooze.

The prospect of waking up early is rarely exciting, but according to health professionals, consistency is key. Unfortunately, no one seems to have told Morning Brief. Since starting to wear my Pixel Watch 3 regularly, I’ve had multiple days when I don’t receive my briefs until well after I’m out of bed and have gotten my day started, and by “well” I mean hours later.

Considering the strength of the brief is that it helps users kick off the day with useful information, it’s not ideal for it to have such a delayed arrival. For one, I’ve already gotten dressed and no longer need to know the weather (likely because I’ve asked Alexa instead). For another, if I’m trying to slip in an early workout (which I often need to), I’ve likely also already mentally committed or even begun exercising without getting a peek at my readiness score.

On other mornings, I received my Morning Brief but didn’t realize it. Supposedly, this is because the notification doesn’t come with a haptic alert if you have Do Not Disturb enabled, i.e. if your watch is still in Bedtime mode, for example. In my experience, the alert doesn’t always vibrate even without DND on. According to Google, users should receive a Morning Brief within 30 minutes of waking up. If you miss the brief or notification, you will see an ongoing activity indicator on your watch face, which lasts an additional 30 minutes. I have seen this indicator once or twice, but not every time I should have. This isn’t just a me-problem, either. My colleagues C. Scott Brown and Rita El Khoury both have a Pixel Watch 3 and are seeing similarly inconsistent Morning Brief notifications.

This inconsistency has quickly become a reason to wake up grumpy. I asked a Google spokesperson about the challenges I have been having, and though the team was extremely responsive and helpful, I have yet to achieve a seamless experience. One recommendation if you are also facing similar issues is to make sure your phone, watch, and companion app are all updated. Again, this hasn’t solved anything for me, but it is worth a shot.

Things get even uglier when you take into account that not everyone can maintain a regular sleep schedule. If you tend to wake up in the middle of the night and doom scroll for a bit before falling back asleep, you may get an onscreen briefing long before the morning actually arrives. Now your sleep score and readiness screens are both useless and you’re left without guidance later, when you actually start your day. Alternatively, if you sometimes wake up early for an ambitious sunrise hike or to catch an early flight, you’ll want that briefing to hit your wrist, even if it is an ungodly hour.

With these scenarios in mind, the brief cannot simply be assigned to a specific time. It needs to concretely respond to users really waking up and getting going. This isn’t easy by any means, but other wearable companies have managed to pull it off. Apple consistently wishes me a good morning when I wake up, and Garmin’s Morning Report is very reliable, too.

Assuming a software update will solve the delivery issues at some point, I am still not wowed by Morning Brief, even on the best of days. Immediate access to my psyche in the morning is not something I grant light-heartedly. I actually gate keep my brain power by avoiding my phone until I’ve at least brushed my teeth, tamed my hair, and donned my slippers. If a notification is going to pop on my wrist asking for my attention first thing, it needs to be very useful. In this regard, Morning Brief feels half-baked. The most obvious data point missing is a calendar screen. There is little more important when approaching your day than knowing what lies ahead. Do I have any meetings today, or can I stay in my pajamas for a few more hours (the biggest luxury of working from home)?

Likewise, the weather component of the current model is entirely too simple. Rather than an overtly basic forecast, I want more details so I can strategically plan my day. Is it going to pour all day or just later tonight? Should I plan my outdoor run for tonight when it’s pouring so I can skip it without guilt? These are the critical details. Across the board, each aspect of the Morning Brief should be tappable so users can access more information at will. If my sleep score is bad, I should be able to quickly dig into where things went wrong overnight. If my Weekly Exercise progress is good, I should be able to tap into more details about what exercises I’ve done so far. Put simply, the entire tool should be more useful.

To be clear, I’m not ready to write off Morning Brief. The tool has a ton of potential. I’m just eager to see Fitbit continue developing it to be more useful and more reliable.