Google Wear OS updated at I/O 2021, co-developed with Samsung and Fitbit
It was long rumored and now its true. Wear OS is getting a lot of love from Google this year, promising improvements that have long been asked by the community. The new Wear OS is smarter, more efficient, and is focused on delivering world-class health features to its consumers. Sadly, Google did not hint at anything related to the rumoured Pixel Watch.
For the next version of Wear OS, Google has closely worked with partners Samsung and Fitbit. On the surface, Google is promising vastly superior performances and better user experience. Additionally, the focus is more on fitness as Fitbit has worked to provide advanced fitness and health services.
Here are a few highlights of Wear OS that Google gave at the I/O 2021 event.
Wear OS features
Google has focused on delivering on three key areas for Wear OS this year:
– Building a unified platform
– New consumer experiences
– World class fitness and health service
A unified platform
Google has worked with Samsung to strengthen core areas of the operating system. At the event, Google said that all the positives of Wear OS and Tizen OS are now combined into the new Wear OS to make for massive unified experiences.
With this collaboration, Google promises vastly improved battery life and superior performance. All the first-party and third-party apps will now start up to 30 percent faster with smoother animations. Those monitoring heart rate can also forget worries about the battery as Wear OS can now do continuous heart rate monitoring using low power cores of the on-device chip.
New consumer experiences
Wear OS now gets a new and improved navigation system to make daily use easier. For example, users can now double-tap the menu key to switch over to other apps for multitasking. The Tiles feature for Google apps will now support information to be shown from third-party apps for notifications.
Google has introduced the Material Design theme to the OS as well as system apps. Features such as the turn-by-turn navigation on Google Maps and support for GPay payments are baked into the system. Users can even download YouTube Music files without phone. Developers can bring more apps to users via Google Play.
World class fitness and health services
“Health and fitness tracking is essential for wearables. With the latest Wear update, we welcome Fitbit’s many years of health expertise to the experience. The best of Fitbit, including features like tracking your health progress throughout your day and on-wrist goal celebrations, will motivate you on your journey to better health,” says Google at the event.
