Wear OS

As part of the Pixel Watch rollout, Google has detailed that the Wear OS device will get “at least” three years of updates.

The Pixel Watch has a 294 mAh (typical) battery that’s officially rated for “up to 24 hours,” with Google employing a number of software features to save battery life.

The Pixel Watch is Google’s very first smartwatch, but it leverages the history of the Wear OS platform and its near-decade of apps and watch faces. But what’s new? Here’s every watch face on the Pixel Watch, and all of Google’s pre-loaded Wear OS apps.

Fitbit will be a highlight of the Pixel Watch experience and we now have a closer look at the new Wear OS app. 

The latest sign that Google’s investment in the Pixel Watch will benefit the entire ecosystem is a new Weather app for all Wear OS 3+ watches.

Google’s Wear OS revival comes to a head with the launch of the company’s own Pixel Watch, and with the boost that’s come from the Galaxy Watch’s success, Wear OS has seen much more interest when it comes to apps. Today, Google has released a redesigned version of its Phone app for Wear OS.

As telegraphed by September’s Google Play system update, the Wear OS Play Store is beginning to get its new redesign.

To better highlight that the Play Store is increasingly home to more than just phone apps, Google is adding a prominent “Other devices” section for watch, televisions, and car apps.

With the Sense 2 and Versa 4, Fitbit debuted a new UI for its smartwatches that’s nearly identical to stock Wear OS 3 and, therefore, the Pixel Watch. 

Google’s Wear OS was a forgotten platform in the greater smartwatch market when looking at what people were actually buying, but things are quickly turning around. On Samsung’s back, Wear OS continues to grow, as Q2 2022 saw another big jump from the Galaxy Watch 4.

Following Camera for Wear OS last month, Google Keep is rolling out a Material You redesign that modernizes the app and joins its just-added Tile for faster note-taking.

After teasing its arrival, SoundCloud is now available on Wear OS, but only in a beta for now.

Ahead of its own Pixel Watch hitting the market, Google has today announced the Bitmoji for Wear OS watch face which is available now for Wear OS smartwatches.

Two big updates are headed out to Galaxy devices starting this week, as Samsung has just announced Android 12L for its older foldable smartphones, as well as Wear OS 3.5 for the Galaxy Watch 4 series.

Samsung has been testing out a new version of Wear OS and its One UI Watch skin for the Galaxy Watch 4 over the past few months, but as of this week, the beta is over and the stable update is right around the corner.

While the pool of Wear OS 3 smartwatches is quite limited at this stage, you can now take WhatsApp voice calls on your wrist should you have a compatible wearable.

After years of neglect, Google finally gave Wear OS a boost last year, and that arrived with the help of Samsung and the Galaxy Watch 4. Finally, good hardware gave the platform a chance to thrive, which is only getting better now. How can you follow up the watch that tripled platform sales in just one year? With the Galaxy Watch 5, Samsung answers that question with some relatively minor improvements.

Over the past year especially, Google has encouraged Wear OS app developers to add tiles, and Google Keep is now the latest first-party application to do so.