How to enable the Pixel Watch's hidden grid view app launcher right now

In case you missed it, I published an article over on Android Authority earlier today that showed off some of the upcoming design changes on the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2. These include Material You dynamic theming support and a new grid view app launcher. You should read that article for context, since this post's purpose is to serve as a tutorial on how to enable that grid view feature right now on your Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2.

[Please do not share this method outside of the comments here or my Discord!]

Prerequisites:

- You own a Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2

- You have updated the software on your watch to either the January 2024 or February 2024 release.

- You are on a recent build of the "Wear OS SystemUI" app.

(If you just use your watch like normal, you should be on a recent enough version already, but check for updates in settings and Google Play just to be safe.)

- You have downloaded/set up ADB on your PC. Here's a great tutorial from XDA.

- You have enabled Developer Options/USB debugging/Wi-Fi debugging on your Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2. Follow these steps from Google to enable Developer Options and Wi-Fi debugging on your Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2. If you have a Pixel Watch 2, you can also just plug the charger puck into a PC and use wired debugging like you would any Android phone.

Tutorial

1) Enter ADB shell on your Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2.

In the directory where you downloaded the ADB binary, open a terminal or command prompt and enter:

Windows: .\adb shell

macOS/Linux: ./adb shell

Note: If you have multiple devices with USB/Wi-Fi debugging connected to your PC at the same time, you'll need to differentiate which one to run the 'adb shell' command on. You can do so by typing 'adb devices' to list which devices are connected, and then re-run the above command but add '-s SERIAL' in between 'adb' and 'shell'.

For example:

There are loads of tutorials out there on how to use ADB, but if you get stuck when trying to enter ADB shell on your watch, leave a comment below or in Discord and I'll help you troubleshoot.

2) Run this command while in ADB shell:

settings put global wear_launcher_ui_mode 1

There won't be any output. It should just take effect immediately. Your app drawer should now be a grid view. If you want to change it back to a list view, you can go to Settings > General > App view. Alternatively, if you're on the most recent version of the Wear OS SystemUI app, there should be two buttons at the bottom of the app drawer that let you quickly switch between the grid view and the list view.

That's it! Let me know in the comments here or in Discord if this method works for you. One thing to note is that this change seems to revert itself if you reboot, so keep that in mind. It should persist otherwise, but I haven't had it enabled long enough to confirm. (My Pixel Watch 2 updated itself to the February 2024 build overnight.)

(Last thing to note: If you're wondering how to enable the Material You feature right now, don't bother. It doesn't work properly at the moment, as far as I can tell.)

Big thanks to Mastodon user aa@shrimple.aagaming.me for discovering and sharing the method to enable this feature with me!