Before Wear OS 4, if you wanted to take a screenshot of your smartwatch’s display you had to go through this whole complicated process. You need to go into the app and tap on some menus to get the screenshot. Which would then be saved in the app which you could then transfer to your photo gallery.
With Wear OS 4 Google makes all this easier and more convenient. And dare I say it, faster. Not by much, mind you. And if I’m being completely honest, things could have been even easier than they are now. Even with the improvements. When it comes to taking screenshots on smartwatches, Samsung still proves itself the best with its Galaxy Watch devices. Since all you have to do is press and hold the power button and action button at the same time for a few seconds. The screenshot is then automatically transferred to the connected smartphone. Donate and donate.
With Wear OS 4 on the Pixel Watch 2 it’s not as simple, but it’s better than before as the process completely eliminates the Wear OS app requirements. If you’re wondering how to take a screenshot on a Wear OS 4 device, like the Pixel Watch 2 (this excludes Galaxy Watch devices on Wear OS 4 as they have their own method), we’ll walk you through the steps with this guide. The process is pretty quick and there aren’t many things to do. Having said that, let’s get into the nitty gritty.
How to take a screenshot on Wear OS 4
For the purposes of this how-to guide, we’ll use the Pixel Watch 2 as an example. This will also work for the Pixel Watch since it has the same buttons. Please note, however, that the process may change slightly with other watches. More specifically, another Wear OS 4 watch (once the update rolls out to other watches) may have different buttons to press.
Connect your watch to your phone
To begin with, you’ll need to make sure your watch is connected to your smartphone. This is a no-brainer because it’s always been that way. But it’s easy to understand that you might think that this wouldn’t be necessary. Since the screenshot can simply be taken on the watch without a phone connected and saved to the watch’s internal memory. However, this is not the case. Screenshots are captured and then immediately sent to a connected phone.
Press the Digital Crown and the Recents button at the same time
Once you’ve connected your watch to your phone, you’re ready to take screenshots. All you have to do when you want to grab one is press the Digital Crown and the Recents button at the same time. The Recents button is flatter and sits just above the Digital Crown on the watch case. Tap them together for just a second and you’ll get your screenshot.
Send and share the screenshot on your phone
After taking a screenshot you will receive a notification on your phone from the watch. A menu will appear asking you where you want to send the screenshot. Here you’ll have plenty of options, including attaching the screenshot to an SMS message or sending it via any number of social apps like Discord, Messenger, Google Meet, and even Gmail. Or you can choose to upload it to Google Photos.
The chosen sending method only needs to be selected once
Although you have the option to select a certain method each time, it is not necessary. For example, I chose to upload my screenshots to Google Photos and chose this to be the sending method every time. From now on, whenever I take a screenshot, it will be sent directly to Photos. You will still have to upload the photo from your watch to your chosen app each time. So if you choose “upload to Google Photos” like I did, you will still have to upload it there. But you won’t have to select that app anymore. It simplifies one step in the process the first time you upload an image.
It’s still a little more boring than it needs to be. But this is better than Wear OS 3 and Wear OS 3.5. Let’s hope Google changes this so that screenshots are automatically loaded when they are captured. And this is all. See, pretty simple and way better than before.