Wear OS

Gboard today is available on Android, iOS, Google/Android TV, and is now coming to Wear OS. The company touts this as bringing “faster and easier messaging” to your wearable.

Fossil started rolling out the latest Wear OS update to various watches in December but announced that it paused the release for Gen 5 devices in February to “iron out some issues.” H-MR2 today is rolling back out to Fossil watches in a process that involves two updates.

Google has unceremoniously revamped the dedicated Wear OS Play Store landing page giving more prominence to featured apps and watchfaces on the wearable platform.

After years of its loyal community asking for a smartwatch, OnePlus has finally delivered with its $159 OnePlus Watch. We have a full review of the new product in the works, but in the several days I’ve spent so far with the OnePlus Watch, there’s been one major standout in the software; that’s not a good thing.

Google told developers that it would deprecate the legacy method for installing Wear OS apps in March. Existing users of the Android-based wearable platform have yet to be impacted, but those setting up new watches or repairing are getting hit by this change.

It was a bit of a surprise to see that the OnePlus Watch would skip over Google’s Wear OS platform. Despite its flaws, it still has a large app ecosystem and pairs well with Android phones. In a Q&A this week, OnePlus has answered why the OnePlus Watch doesn’t use Wear OS as well as some other top community questions.

After introducing its new version earlier this year in the US, the original Google Pay app will, for the most part, be shut down next week on April 5. That stemmed a since-updated “report” that the app’s death would also shutter support for Google Pay on Wear OS, but that’s simply not the case.

As Samsung gears up for its next big launch, rumors and reports are giving us a picture of what to expect. Now, an updated version of the Galaxy Wearable companion app has provided more evidence that the next Galaxy Watch will switch to Wear OS as well as revealing a new pair of earbuds, “Galaxy Buds 2.”

Wear OS has stagnated a bit in recent years, with little in the way of noticeable changes, but Google still manages to bring new tweaks and quality of life upgrades from time to time. The latest tweak adds a “Manage” button to the Wear OS notification panel.

There’s been a fair bit of back and forth for the past few months regarding whether or not the OnePlus Watch would be running Google’s flailing Wear OS platform. Now, CEO Pete Lau has officially confirmed the OnePlus Watch will have its own operating system.

Starting in 2019, swiping left on Wear OS clock faces would show you “Tiles” for weather, news headlines, and more. Only first-party Google apps have ever been able to offer these glanceable pieces of information. That’s finally changing with Google now letting third-party developers create custom Wear OS Tiles.

Google’s Wear OS is often called neglected, and honestly, it’s an apt description when you hear stories like this. For the past few months, the “Hey Google” hotword on Wear OS has been broken.

While the platform itself hasn’t changed much, the hardware powering Wear OS smartwatches has improved a fair bit over the past couple of years. Most notably, that includes the Snapdragon 4100 series of chips, which makes a huge difference and offers a worthy upgrade, too. That’s why the TicWatch Pro S is incredibly confusing.

At the tail end of last year, the Fossil Group started rolling out the latest system for Google’s wearable platform. It’s been a slow process, with H MR2 currently paused for Fossil Gen 5 Wear OS watches to address unspecified issues.