October Google System Updates: Connect Wear OS to ‘multiple phones,’ more [U]

With Android 14 and Wear OS 4 both now fully released, this month’s Google System Updates showcase a few other improvements coming for our phones, tablets, and smartwatches, including the ability to connect a Wear OS watch to “multiple phones.”

Update: The latest patch notes reveal new changes coming to the Play Store on Wear OS, among other upgrades.

Aside from the major annual updates to Android, Wear OS, and Google TV, devices based on Android also receive numerous monthly upgrades delivered through the Play Store. Core components of Android can be updated through “Play System updates,” while new versions of Google Play Services, Android System Webview, and the Play Store keep even older phones feeling fresh.

Google rounds up the various improvements to these apps/services – collectively called the “Google System” – each month and publishes the patch notes. The company will often add new details throughout the month, and we do our best to keep track and explain the most important ones here.

The easiest way to check whether you need to update Google Play Services on your phone is to follow a direct link to the app’s Play Store listing and update from there, if available. To update the Play Store, tap your avatar in the corner, then “Settings.” Under the “About” section, you’ll see an option to “Update Play Store.” Meanwhile, Google Play system updates can be found through the Settings app, under About phone > Android version > Google Play system update.

Thus far, many of the patch notes for October 2023 have been fairly minor, but a few key details have stuck out to us. For starters, Google notes that Play Services version 23.39 enables the ability to connect a Wear OS watch to “multiple phones seamlessly.” We currently assume that this is referring to Wear OS 4’s ability to transfer your watch from one phone to another without needing to reset the watch.

Meanwhile, Play Services 23.40 is set to tweak where the files you receive via Nearby Sharing are saved. Before the change, incoming files and photos are saved to a dedicated “Nearby Share” folder inside your Downloads folder. The company doesn’t specify where files will now be saved, and this version has not yet been rolled out to our devices.

In the Play Store, as of version 37.8, there will be a “new design on the app details page,” which Google says will make it easier to “discover and learn about” apps for your other Android devices, like your watch, tablet, gaming handheld, etc.

Update 11/1: Continuing the wave of Wear OS news, a pair of improvements to the Play Store should make the smartwatch app downloading experience more straightforward. For starters, you’ll be able to immediately apply a watch face after installing it, streamlining the customization. Meanwhile, any Wear OS apps that have a tendency to crash will have a warning displayed on their Play Store listings, just as seen on mobile.

Speaking of, the phone/tablet version of the Play Store is getting quite a few upgrades of its own. In a bit of a Material Design tweak, app search results should now appear as cards. Google says this change is to separate “organic results from other elements” (presumably meaning ads).

Another notable change lets you choose whether the Play Store is permitted to update an app installed by another Android app store. This is likely part of ongoing changes to Android and iOS related to Europe’s Digital Markets Act and similar legal challenges in India.

In Google Wallet news, the app now fully supports importing barcode or QR passes via image, a capability first seen in June. This allows you to add memberships to your Wallet without needing direct integration with the app. Additionally, Google Wallet’s notifications are set to arrive through the standalone app if you have it installed – a curious, if minor, tweak.

For those who use Nearby Sharing, it should be noted that Google has announced this month that it will be disabling the service while a device is using a work profile. No reasoning was shared for the change.

Account Management

• [Auto, Phone] Bug fixes for Account Management related services.

Android System Intelligence

• [Phone] Bug fixes for Offline Speech Recognition settings.
• [Pixel] Bug fixes for Live translate.

Android WebView

• Improvements to security and privacy and updates for bug fixes.
• New developer features for Google & 3rd party app developers to support functionality related to displaying web content in their apps.

Developer Services

• [Phone] New developer features for Google and third party app developers to support Utilities related processes in their apps.

Device Connectivity

• [Phone] Support to connect your watch to multiple phones seamlessly.
• [Phone] Content received over Nearby Share is stored in a new location.
• [Phone] New developer features for Google and third party app developers to support Device Connectivity related processes in their apps.
• [Phone] Nearby Share is disabled in work profiles.

Google Play Store

• [Phone] New design on the app details page to help you discover and learn about apps for your non-phone devices.
• [Phone] You’ll be able to add apps to your Google Play library directly when apps ask Google Play to download new content or functionality.
• [Phone] Payments legal documents being shown on a dedicated acceptance screen that the user must accept to proceed with the purchase.
• [Phone] When tapping on an ad, the image used on the card will be viewable as a screenshot on the Details Page.
• [Phone] You can now decide if Google Play can update an app that was installed by a different app store.
• [Wear] Users can now install and set watch faces directly from the Play store listing and opt in to always automatically set watchfaces upon install.
• [Phone] Users will see the contents in the SERP as “cards” which should help differentiate organic results from other elements.
• [Wear] Warning messages are now visible on detail pages for apps that are prone to crashes.
• [Phone] Some users will be presented with an option to tell the Play Store about the categories of games they are interested in.

Wallet

• [Phone] Route Google Wallet notifications through the Google Wallet app, if present.
• [Wear] Enabling push provisioning for Wearables.
• [Phone] Support adding Wallet passes from images containing barcodes or QR codes.

System Management

• [Auto, PC, Phone, TV, Wear] Updates to system management services that improve Stability.
• [Phone] Updates to system management services that improve Device Connectivity, Network Usage, Security, Stability, and Updatability.
• [Phone] Bug fixes for System Management & Diagnostics related services.
• [Auto, PC, Phone, TV, Wear] Updates to system management services that improve Privacy.
• [Phone] Updates to system management services that improve Device Connectivity, Network Usage, Security, Stability, and Updatability.
• [Phone] Bug fixes for System Management & Diagnostics related services.