Pixel 10 users report pairing crisis with Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch Ultra [Updated]

Update 11/09/25 – 10:22 am (IST): The August Play System update is rolling out to users around the world, and it brings a fix for the pairing bug. For more details, head here.

Update 03/09/25 – 10:30 am (IST): A product expert on Google’s support forums has confirmed that the team is aware of issues people are facing when pairing their Galaxy watches with the Pixel 10. Unfortunately, there’s no official workaround yet, and no ETA has been provided for a fix.

Original article published on September 1, 2025, follows:

Google’s latest flagship phone launch has hit a major snag that’s leaving users with expensive wrist accessories they can’t actually use. Pixel 10 owners across multiple forums are reporting complete failure when trying to pair their new phones with Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 8 and the Watch Ultra, creating frustration for customers who expected their devices to work together seamlessly.

The problem appears to be widespread, affecting users across different Pixel 10 variants, including the Pro and XL models. Samsung’s community forums have logged over 4,700 views on a single thread documenting the compatibility crisis, with 83 users confirming they’re experiencing identical issues.

Many Galaxy Watch owners who successfully transferred their devices from older Pixel phones found their watches working initially, only to discover severe battery drain issues and eventual disconnection within hours of setup.

“My ultra watch has the same problem with my Pixel 10 XL pro. Drained from 100% to 8% in the span of 4 hours,” reported one frustrated user on Samsung’s community platform. “I didn’t even notice it wasn’t connected with bluetooth (it was doing everything over cellular). I’ve reset it and uninstalled and reinstalled the apps and no luck. My watch no longer functions.”

Interestingly, the same Galaxy watches that fail with Pixel 10 devices continue working normally when paired with Pixel 9 series phones, suggesting the issue stems from Android 16 or specific changes Google implemented in their latest hardware release. One user confirmed this by successfully pairing their Galaxy Watch 8 with a Pixel 9 Pro XL running Android 16. So it’s possible that a software bug specifc to the Pixel 10 series is causing the issue.

The situation has created a support nightmare for affected users. Samsung support representatives appear to be falling back on generic Bluetooth pairing instructions, while Google’s support channels direct users to contact Samsung instead. 

This pairing crisis represents another chapter in the Pixel 10’s rocky early days. Just last week, we covered a comprehensive roundup of early bugs and issues affecting the new devices. It’s a bad look for Google because people often think of Pixel phones as being the most optimized and stable devices in the Android space.

Neither Samsung nor Google has issued official statements acknowledging the widespread pairing failures. Given the volume of reports and the specificity of the issue, a software update from Samsung’s Galaxy Wearable app or Google’s Android system seems inevitable. Until then, affected users face the uncomfortable choice of returning expensive hardware or waiting indefinitely for a fix.

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