Google has announced a major new upgrade for Wear OS, addressing the key issues of the platform. The company has worked with Samsung to build its new wearable platform, and it is also leveraging its Fitbit acquisition for improved health tracking.
The new version of Wear OS is actually a combination of Wear OS and Tizen, Samsung's wearable OS. It offers improved performance, better customization, and longer battery life.
New Wear OS Is Faster, Smoother, and Power Efficient
Despite Google working with Samsung and merging Tizen with Wear OS, the company makes it clear that the new version of Wear OS will be available to other smartwatch makers. Google also emphasized that developers will have access to unified APIs, allowing them to easily build apps and services for the latest version of Wear OS.
So, what improvements does the new version of Wear OS offer? As per Google, applications will load 30 percent faster, system animations will be notably smoother, and battery life will be significantly better.
The revamped UI of the newest version of Wear OS will make navigation easier. You can switch back to your previously used app at the double press of a button. Google is also opening up Tiles to third-party developers, and you can easily swipe between them to quickly access different Tiles.
Redesigned Google Apps Are Coming to Wear OS
Google is redesigning Google Maps, Google Assistant, and Google Pay as a part of the Wear OS revamp. The new Google Pay app will work across 26 countries. It will also debut a new YouTube Music app for the platform later this year with the Smart Downloads feature baked in.
Taking advantage of its Fitbit acquisition, Google will be bringing Fitbit's excellent health tracking features to Wear OS. You will be able to track and view your health progress right from your wrist, with each goal that you reach being celebrated to motivate you further.
To bring more apps to the platform, Google is providing developers with improved tools and new APIs. There's also a new watch face editor from Samsung to allow developers to create beautiful new watch faces.
Next Galaxy Watch to Run Wear OS
During the opening keynote of I/O 2021, Google and Samsung confirmed that the next Galaxy Watch would run on Wear OS. The Galaxy Watch 4 has already been detailed in a leak, which suggests Samsung will launch three different variants of the watch.
Fitbit also confirmed that its future wearables would run Wear OS.
The new Wear OS will start rolling out later this year. It is unclear if the update will be available for existing Wear OS smartwatches or not.