Wear OS

New Wear OS watches will get health upgrades from the company that almost got the Apple Watch banned

Ben Schoon | Sep 16 2024 - 12:30 pm PT

Since Wear OS’ reboot a few years ago, the variety of hardware the platform once experienced has partially vanished, but that may change as Google is building a new “reference platform” for Wear OS with the help of a company with a notable background.

Since its launch around a decade ago, Google’s smartwatch platform has seen a huge variety of hardware options. There were smartwatches from a host of different brands, including some legacy names like Fossil. But since the switch to a more controlled ecosystem in Wear OS 3 and beyond, some names have faded away, including Fossil, which has greatly lessened the number of hardware options on the market today.

A big reason for that was how Wear OS 3 and forward have handled health. Where part of the appeal of Wear OS previously was that Google Fit was pre-installed and ready to handle health features, newer updates have required smartwatch makers to develop their own health suite as Google shifted focus away from Fit and over to Fitbit.

It seems that someone is stepping in to fill that gap.

Masimo, a health technology company, has announced a new partnership with Google where the two companies will work together to build a new “reference platform” for Wear OS. This new platform will be designed to assist OEMs to make new smartwatches based on Wear OS with “a suite of health and wellness tracking tools” provided by Masimo.

Masimo explains:

By incorporating Masimo’s breakthrough biosensing technologies – based on its decades of expertise developing industry-leading hospital monitoring solutions – and standardizing smartwatch devices using the Masimo reference platform, OEMs will be able to more efficiently build and bring high-performing Wear OS smartwatches to market. The robust reference platform is designed to support the fast-growing Wear OS ecosystem – including with a suite of health and wellness tracking tools that consumers can trust to provide accurate, reliable data, seamless integration with Android smartphones, and a high-quality, high-performance experience.

It’s noted that this new platform is supposed to still work with standard Wear OS apps and services from Google, and that OEMs will still be able to customize Wear OS and create the hardware itself with “creative control.” It’s the hardware (such as sensors) under the hood and some of the software, including the phone app, that Masimo will be providing.

The goal, the company says, is to be able to provide the “components, features, and benefits” that help build the Masimo W1 Sport to OEMs making Wear OS smartwatches.

The Masimo reference platform will make all of these components, features, and benefits available for smartwatch manufacturers building Wear OS smartwatches in an easy-to-implement, standardized package.

If the name Masimo sounds familiar, it might be due to the company’s recent and very public dispute with Apple.

Masimo sued Apple over health tech in the Apple Watch series, specifically around blood oxygen tracking. Masimo had called for a full import ban of the Apple Watch if Apple hadn’t been willing to pay for a licensing deal. Apple was forced to briefly halt sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, but the tech giant ended up deciding to just entirely disable blood oxygen tracking on all of its newer Watch models, something that still applies even to the company’s brand new Apple Watch Series 10 that was announced last week.