Following the big 2.0 update that was released at the beginning of the year, Android Wear has been in something of a slump. A lack of truly compelling hardware is keeping new buyers at bay, and upcoming competition from Samsung and Fitbit is giving the platform a run for its money. However, for those of you that still rely on Google’s wearable OS, a new update that’s coming with 8.0 Oreo will help to keep you on top of all incoming notifications — even when your battery’s low.
When your watch’s battery is drained to a certain point, Android Wear will automatically kick on Battery Saver Mode to help extend its runtime as much as possible before you can find your way to a charger. However, when Battery Saver Mode is currently enabled, you aren’t alerted when new notifications come in. According to a sighting within the Android Open Source Project (via XDA), this will be changing with the update to 8.0 Oreo.
Following Android Wear’s upgrade to Oreo (likely 2.1 or 3.0), you’ll still be able to get vibrations for priority notifications even when your watch is in Battery Saver Mode. With this change, you can ensure that you won’t miss out on alarms, calls, and texts while still filtering out unimportant alerts from Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.
There’s currently no timeframe for 8.0 Oreo’s release on Android Wear, and although this is definitely not a massive change by any means, it should still be a very welcome addition for those on this platform. This isn’t enough on its own to breathe new life into Android Wear as a whole, but it is a very, very small step in the right direction.
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