Wear OS

After the Android Wear rebrand to Wear OS, Google in March announced a developer preview based on Android P for its wearable platform. The big focus was on conserving battery life, but the company faced some pushback over constraints and as a result refined them with Developer Preview 2 at I/O 2018. Today, the company is again toning down those changes.

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If you had to pick one thing as the weakest point of Wear OS, it’s definitely the battery life. Most Wear OS devices barely last a day, and there’s not much OEMs can do to fix that. Mobvoi, however, seems to have found a unique solution with its upcoming TicWatch Pro.

Earlier this week some rumors hit the web surrounding Samsung’s future for wearables. Specifically, that Samsung was switching to Wear OS for the Gear S4. While it’s easy to disregard those, a tweet from Evan Blass suggests that they might hold a bit of weight.

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If you’ve been following the news today, you might have heard something about Samsung building a new smartwatch that runs Google’s Wear OS instead of Samsung’s own Tizen. For now, those rumors are pretty sketchy, so I wouldn’t take anything too seriously. That said, though, let’s take a look at what good, and what bad, might come of that sort of change…

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Coming out of I/O 2018 with a number of updates and more on the way this year, Google Assistant this evening picks up a new “Your Actions” section. Meanwhile, another recent addition for Wear OS finally adds sports scores.

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Android P is the next major upgrade coming to Wear OS, but until then the wearable platform will continue receiving small incremental releases over time. One of those updates today is a new “Wear OS Phone” app that’s just been uploaded to the Play Store.

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Ahead of I/O 2018, a rumored LG Wear OS device with a hybrid form factor passed through the FCC. The only news from the conference ended up being an updated Android P Developer Preview. However, a flurry of reports in the past days confirm a “lead smartwatch,” while new rumors today suggest Google-made smartwatches later this fall.

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The Wear OS rebrand in March simply gave Google’s wearable platform a new name. With the Android P Developer Preview later that month, Google introduced a system dark theme and smart battery saving features. At I/O 2018, Google is further refining the latter aspect with an enhanced battery saver mode.

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The rebrand of Android Wear to Wear OS in March was just that, a rebrand. Google reiterated that Wear OS would gain new functionality in smaller, incremental updates. Meanwhile, on the hardware front, even recent and rumored watches are slated to use the same underlying chip.

The Snapdragon 2100 in question contributes to Wear OS being held back technologically, however, that might soon change with new Qualcomm chipsets coming this year.

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Late last month, a rumor suggested the arrival of a new LG Wear OS device that would feature a hybrid analog design. A day before I/O 2018, a new FCC filing from LG suggests that this watch is real and could feature a redesigned interface to account for the rumored form factor.

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Earlier this week, Google announced that Assistant on Wear OS would be getting a variety of new features. As promised, Google has now begun rolling out this update to users.

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In recent weeks, Wear OS has undergone a lot of notable developments from the rebrand to the Android P Developer Preview. Today, just ahead of I/O 2018 next week, Google is announcing a number of updates to make Google Assistant more full featured.

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I’ve never been shy about my distaste for what has become of “Android Wear,” and despite a recent rebrand, there’s still one very true thing about Google’s wearable OS – it gets the best hardware but the worst software. The Fossil Q Control is an incredible example of that.

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Casio has long been on the Android Wear (and lately, Wear OS) train, and now the company is doubling down with the release of yet another Pro Trek smartwatch. This one, called the WSD-F20A (good luck remembering that name), brings the slew of unique Pro Trek features at a lower price point.
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Following the rebrand of the wearable platform earlier this month, Google is today launching a developer preview for Wear OS. Android P for smartwatches introduces features announced for phones and tablets, a dark UI system theme, and smart battery saving features.

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