Wear OS

The first Google-branded smartwatch is finally on its way, but leaks have been few and far between. Today, a very minor Pixel Watch leak has our attention, primarily because it comes with the detail of running Wear OS “3.1,” which is out-of-date.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 series has proved to be a hit, but the battery life was one of the least satisfying parts of the lineup. Apparently, that’s something Samsung is preparing to solve with the “Galaxy Watch 5 Pro,” which would have a 60% larger battery.

As of today, we’ve primarily seen Wear OS 3 in the context of Samsung’s One UI on the Galaxy Watch 4. New screenshots of Wear OS 3 provide another sneak peek at what could be considered the stock Google experience. 

The launch of the Skagen Falster Gen 6 earlier this year brought with it the reveal of a partnership between Amazon and Fossil that would bring Alexa to select Wear OS smartwatches. Now, a few months later, that feature is finally going live.

Update 3/15: Fossil has officially announced this functionality, offering a bit more context from our original coverage last week. Read on for more details.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is one the best smartwatches you can buy today, in part because of its excellent health and fitness tracking tools. According to a new report, the Galaxy Watch 5 will add a skin thermometer to the package.

Qualcomm’s current flagship chip for wearables pales in comparison to what Samsung offers, but that could soon change. A new report today revealed details about the Snapdragon Wear 5100 and 5100+ that Qualcomm previously telegraphed was coming.

The next generation of Wear OS is around the corner, with Google slowly progressing on Wear OS 3 through developer previews. This week, the company has quietly released another emulator image, which shows some progress since the last time we dove in.

Google Pay makes it really easy to handle payments in stores that accept NFC, and Wear OS has long supported the ability to make these payments. With Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4, it’s finally possible to install Google Pay, but some owners have recently been seeing errors including that Google Pay “couldn’t finish setup.”

The Galaxy Watch 4 is a powerful smartwatch, there is no doubt about it. In fact, it may be the best of the bundle right now. To add to that, the latest Wear OS update adds a really nice new quality-of-life feature to its notification system on the Galaxy Watch 4 for Google Messages and Slack.

Earlier this week Samsung revealed a new update coming to the Galaxy Watch 4 series that would deliver sleep coaching, custom interval training, and more features. Now, that major February update for the Galaxy Watch 4 is rolling out widely, and it comes with a more detailed changelog that reveals the ability to set the orientation for the left or right wrist.

Now on its fourth-generation of Wear OS watches, Tag Heuer today announced the Connected Calibre E4. It features modern specs in line with other non-Samsung wearables and comes in two sizes.

Surrounding its Galaxy S22 unveil yesterday, Samsung also announced a new update policy that leads the Android market. As it turns out, that policy will also extend to the Galaxy Watch 4, which will be getting Wear OS updates for the next four years.

Following Samsung’s tease yesterday afternoon, Google today provided more details on the new Assistant experience coming to Wear OS, including its new design.

Google’s sudden renewed focus on Wear OS has delivered more apps and long overdue updates to others. Now, the YouTube Music app that first made its debut a few months ago is confirmed to add the ability to stream songs to Wear OS watches including the Galaxy Watch 4.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 made the switch over to Wear OS, but it remained an experience that was clearly Samsung’s more than Google’s. Now, Samsung is providing an update on Google Assistant for the Galaxy Watch 4, saying that the promised feature is still “months” away from its debut.

Samsung’s Wear OS-based Galaxy Watch 4 series is getting another major update this week, with new features including custom interval training, sleep coaching, and more.

Later this year, Google will update the latest watches with the newest version of its wearable operating system. Until then, Google is already redesigning some core parts of older watches with Wear OS 3’s new UI.