Wear OS

[Update: Rolling out] Google adds UV Index to Wear OS Weather app and as complication

Abner Li | Apr 12 2021 - 7:22 pm PT

At the end of last year, Google modernized the Wear OS Weather Tile alongside other updates to the platform. In that vein, Wear OS is now getting a UV Index complication for watch faces.

Update 4/12: In addition to a new complication, the UV Index now appears in the Wear OS Weather app. It’s next to the high/low forecast at the top of the application, while also part of the description.

When adding to a watch face, you’ll notice how Weather now has two items. Meanwhile, the complication icon above UV [x] remains a shining sun throughout the day and does not update based on the current index.

Following the Friday announcement, it’s rolling out now via a server-side update that does not require users to do anything. That said, a watch reboot might help get everything in working order.

Original 4/8: Today, there is only a “Weather” complication that shows the current condition and temperature. The one for UV index is similarly styled and matches all other small complication styles. Opening the full Weather app currently provides high/low, precipitation chance, and forecast for a few hours into the future.

The ultraviolet index, which ranges from 0 to 11+, is an “international standard measurement of the strength of sunburn-producing ultraviolet radiation at a particular place and time.”

Google tells us that the UV Index complication is in the process of rolling out, and will be available for all Wear OS watches running the latest updates.

This is the latest in a line of small usability tweaks that the company has made to Wear OS in recent weeks, including: