Google is ending free LTE access to Safety Signal on the Pixel Watch 2 and Pixel Watch 3, the feature that let emergency functions run over a cellular network without a carrier plan. In a short community post, the company said the free connectivity — previously bundled with a Google Health Premium subscription — ends on December 12.
Safety Signal underlies Emergency SOS, Fall Detection and Safety Check. After the cutoff, those features will still work on the watches without a mobile plan, but only while the device is connected to Wi-Fi or paired to a phone over Bluetooth. To keep them working over LTE, owners will have to buy a cellular plan.
Existing users will be notified by email and in-app notification, and will get a 30-day transition period starting when that email is sent before access ends. The change affects the LTE variants of two generations of Google's flagship smartwatch, and follows a familiar pattern: features tied to a subscription quietly becoming paid ones after the hardware has already been sold.
