Wear OS

At the start of this week, Google made the Material You redesign of the Wear OS Play Store official. Alongside that, Google Play on Android phones was also updated with easier install and search filters. Thanks to the Play Store, along with the latest app update, we get a very quick and minor peek at YouTube Music for Wear OS.

Wear OS is about to see its biggest update in years starting with the debut of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 series next month. As Google clarified upgrade plans today, the company also revealed that the new Fossil Wear OS smartwatches will launch without Wear OS 3 and won’t be upgraded for several months.

At I/O 2021 in May, Google announced a total overhaul of its wearable platform. We’ve since seen the new OS previewed on an emulator, while Samsung has confirmed that the new Galaxy Watch will be the first to run it. Many questions remain about Wear OS 3, and Google today addressed the update situation for current watch owners.

Fossil has been the biggest supporter of Google’s Wear OS through all of the platform’s missteps, and now that things are finally headed in the right direction, the company is proud to say that it will debut more Wear OS smartwatches in 2021 with Qualcomm hardware under the hood.

As Wear OS prepares its huge overhaul, it’s still unclear what the future holds for current Snapdragon Wear chips. Qualcomm, though, isn’t ending its efforts, and today announced that new Snapdragon Wear chips are coming over the next year or so.

The upcoming Galaxy Watch 4 series is the most crucial Wear OS release since the platform’s inception, and according to leaks, it’s shaping up to be something special. Today, a fresh report claims that storage on the Galaxy Watch 4 will be double that of any other Wear OS smartwatch.

While software issues did plague Wear OS for years, the biggest problem the platform has faced has been underpowered chips provided by Qualcomm. It’s a problem we really hope to see the new reboot fix, and it seems that might indeed be the case. Today, a new report is detailing the “Exynos W920,” which will be the first chip used on the new Wear OS.

We’re just short of a month away from Samsung’s next big product launch, but there’s not much left to be surprised by. Today, an Amazon listing has shown off the Galaxy Watch 4 yet again and confirmed the pricing in at least one market.

In one of the most unlikely partnerships in recent memory, Tag Heuer is set to release a limited Super Mario smartwatch powered by Wear OS.

Google is readying a major overhaul of its smartwatch platform and provided an emulator “preview” of the underlying UI changes at I/O 2021. A Wear OS 3.0 redesign of the on-wearable Google Play Store is now beginning to roll out.

Samsung today at MWC teased its revamped smartwatch experience based on Wear OS for the first time, but the company didn’t announce a new smartwatch as some were expecting. The company is, however, finally hinting at a release date for this hardware, presumably carrying the “Galaxy Watch 4” name.

Rumors have been around for quite some time regarding Samsung’s switch from Tizen to Google’s Wear OS, and in May, those rumors were confirmed when Google announced the platform’s revamp, and Samsung confirmed it was both adopting it and helping bring it to life. Today, Samsung is showing off its Wear OS experience, “One UI Watch.”

As Google prepares to give Wear OS a soft reboot, the platform’s debut hinges on the arrival of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Watch 4 series. This week, just days after the Galaxy Watch 4 Active leaked, supposed images of the Galaxy Watch 4 have now leaked as well.

Following its I/O 2021 announcement, there’s a lot of excitement around Google’s revamped Wear OS update set to be released in the fall, but there’s also a lot of uncertainty about what the future holds for products currently on the market. This week, though, Qualcomm is claiming that not only its newer Snapdragon 4100 chips, but also its Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip will be able to handle the new Wear OS.

It’s taken a while, but only the second smartwatch to come packing the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 has arrived in the guise of the TicWatch E3, which oddly, is the second such watch from Mobvoi.

After years of neglect, Google finally gave Wear OS some proper attention at I/O with a promising new update set to be released this fall. Upgrade paths, though, are still unclear for current devices. Despite some speculation this week, though, the TicWatch Pro 3 is not confirmed to get the “Wear OS 3.0” update.

Thanks to a collaboration with Google, Samsung’s next batch of smartwatches won’t be running Tizen but, instead, a revamped version of Wear OS. Apparently, we’ll get a peek at that new Wear OS, Samsung Galaxy Watch experience at an MWC panel on June 28.

For the past few years, Fossil has been the biggest Wear OS maker, given how various brands use the same underlying platform. In an interview today, Fossil revealed it was making a premium Gen 6 device leveraging the new Wear OS this fall.