Update: Google has released its fifth and final developer preview of Android Wear 2.0 and it comes with a few notable updates.
Building atop of the hearty fourth update, which introduced a dedicated Play Store and simple authentication when logging into Android Wear apps, the latest testimage bests it with iOS support.
Now, iPhone users can test out a watch and best of all, the native app ability has been confirmed to work in iOS land.
In Android Wear 1.5, iOS-compatible watches offer an experience that pales in comparison to what Android users get. Looks like that is ending once and for all in Android Wear 2.0.
Android Wear 2.0 is nearing its launch in early February, with rumors pointing to February 9 as the exact date you can expect to install the new goodness.
Original article follows below.
Android Wear is Google's smartwatch operating system and the main competitor to the watchOS -running Apple Watch .
It's been around since 2014 and soon it's going to get a big update to Android Wear 2.0, bringing a number of improvements.
Below you'll find information on how it works, all the current features, the key apps and Android Wear watches, as well as details on what Android Wear 2.0 will bring and when you'll be able to get it.
- Check out the best Android Wear smartwatches 2016
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Google's wearable platform
- When is it out? The official release is rumored to be February 9
- What will it cost? Absolutely nothing, so long as you have a compatible watch
Android Wear interface and features
Android Wear might share a name with standard Android but the layout of the interface is quite different, as it's built for much smaller devices and designed with hands-free use in mind.
It's also far more unified than Android on your smartphone or tablet, as some manufacturers have been putting their own skins and launchers over top for years. But, Android Wear doesn't grant that level of freedom, so all smartwatches running the operating system have the same software look and layout.
Android Wear
Android Wear makes accessing some of your phone's handiest features as simple as looking down at your wrist. It primarily acts as a companion to amplify your phone's notifications so that you don't need to dig around in your pocket just to see that someone liked one of your tweets.
The watch face is home base on Android Wear. Swiping up and down through the card-based menu system reveals the weather, your calendar and other pertinent app notifications that have been ported over to the watch.
Android Wear
Sliding your finger to the right dismisses the notifications, but swiping left will reveal different options for each app you use, digging deeper into five day forecasts and the ability to reply to a text with your voice, to name a few examples.
Most of what Android Wear pushes to view is just a copy of the notifications you're used to seeing on your phone. But it also delivers some thoughtful, personalized notifications. Traveling to a new city? It will automatically set you up with the weather there, as well as back home.
Android Wear
Just as slick, Android Wear figures out which sports team you like based on your Google searches and provides real-time sports scores.
It does the same for directions to addresses you've recently looked up or appointments in your calendar. "It's 34 minutes to work with light traffic on the US 101-S."
These just-for-you cards are one of the high points of Android Wear. It makes it feel like it's more than just a simple supplement to your phone.
Android Wear voice recognition
While swipes and other gestures are arguably the main way you'll interact with Android Wear, you can also use voice commands.
All Android Wear smartwatches respond to the simple voice command "Okay, Google." For this simple phrase to work, you'll have to illuminate the watch first. This prevents innocent strangers –or more likely, no good pranksters– from hijacking your smartwatch.
Android Wear
Waking an Android Wear watch from its dimly lit always-on state requires either flicking your wrist up, tapping on the touchscreen, or in some cases pressing in the power button.
All options considered, "Okay, Google" is the easiest way to ask the watch to search the web, pull up a song, display your daily steps, take your heart rate, make a new reminder, navigate to a place or set a timer or alarm. It even generally does as good job of sending texts and emails.
Android Wear apps, compatibility and phone-free use
If apps are what you're after, Android Wear has plenty to choose from – and that list is constantly growing. Take a look on the Google Store, or if you're short on time, check out our list of the best Android Wear apps .
Android Wear is compatible with phones running Android 4.3 or above. It even has limited iOS compatibility, for iOS 8.2 or above.
However, with Android Wear 2.0, operability on both Android and iOS should reach parity. Thanks to the native app feature, it doesn't matter nearly as much now what OS your phone is using. So long as you can download the Android Wear app, you're golden.
Compatibility
- Take a look at our best Android Wear smartwatches
Android Wear watches
While Android Wear software is uniform across devices the hardware can vary quite a lot. Screens can be square or circular and smartwatch designs range from fitness-focused to smart and classy.
You can check out the latest and greatest devices in our list of the best Android Wear smartwatches , but highlights include the Moto 360 (2015) , which is one of the most stylish smartwatches around, with a premium metal design, the Asus ZenWatch 2 , which provides excellent value in a square form factor and the Sony SmartWatch 3 , which, thanks to built-in GPS, is a sporty option.
Android Wear apps
Android Wear has grown a lot since its launch and while the number of apps can't rival standard Android there are thousands available.
These cover numerous categories and include wrist-worn versions of many favorites, such as Spotify, Citymapper, Duolingo, Tinder, Uber and Evernote. You'll also find many of the core Google apps, such as Play Music, Hangouts, Google Maps and Google Translate.
Android Wear
They're typically stripped back versions of their smartphone counterparts, giving you easy access to core features and removing anything that wouldn't work well on your wrist.
For example, the Spotify app lets you skip and pause tracks that are playing on another device, Google Maps brings turn by turn navigation to your wrist and Tinder offers all the same swipey fun as the smartphone version.
Spotify
If you want more control you can also use the likes of IFTTT to create your own 'recipes' for controlling or automating connected devices like Nest and Amazon Echo .
And for the things you can't do on your wrist there's an "open on phone" option that's nestled into nearly every app – except the ones that are native to Android Wear– which allows you to elegantly continue where you left off on your phone.
There's a lot of app choice, but you won't have to dig through them all to find the gems, as we've curated a constantly updated list of the best ones available, so you can always have the best software on your wrist.
As apps are usually quite limited they're also a lot smaller than their smartphone versions, so despite being generally limited to 4GB of storage you're unlikely to fill your watch up with them, though you might want to bear the limited storage in mind if you plan to store your music collection on your wrist.
Android Wear fitness
One of the key app categories on Android Wear is fitness, which is unsurprising since smartwatches have fitness bands and running watches to compete with.
If health and fitness is your main concern the actual hardware on most Android Wear devices isn't a match for an expensive sports watch, or in some cases even for a cheap fitness band. But some put in a decent attempt, such as the Sony SmartWatch 3, which has built-in GPS, while many have heart rate sensors.
LG G Watch
And the selection of apps and services for fitness freaks leaves less smart devices in the dust. There's Google Fit obviously, which can act as a pedometer among other things and connect with other apps to store all your health and fitness data.
Speaking of other apps, you'll also find the likes of Endomondo, Strava and Runtastic Pro available for your Android Wear smartwatch. These don't offer the full range of features afforded by their smartphone counterparts, but they track your activities and in some cases can do so without even being connected to your phone.
Moto 360 Sport
Android Wear 2.0 will give more focus to fitness, allowing apps to pass information to one another using the Google Fit framework. That means you can track the calories you consume with one app, then find out how many you're burning with another, unrelated one.
There's also automatic activity tracking, so in theory your watch will be able to tell whether you're cycling or running, and instantly start up the right app.
The main area of visual customization on Android Wear is the watch face. A selection come built into each watch, but a trip to Google Play is all it takes to find hundreds more.
Android Wear
These include both digital and analogue faces, branded ones, arty ones and a whole lot more, with a large selection available for both circular and square watch faces. If you're stuck for inspiration, check out our list of the best Android Wear watch facesavailable.
Watch faces will soon be getting a lot more useful too, as Android Wear 2.0 allows you to add complications, containing things like battery information, step count, calendar events or notes from your to-do list.
Android Wear 2.0 release date and compatibility
Android Wear is getting an overhaul to Android Wear 2.0 as an OTA update in 2017. Unlike Android smartphones, all eligible watches should get the update at some point.
Android Wear selection
However, some older models will not be eligible. The full list hasn't been confirmed, but we know that the LG G Watch and Moto 360 (2014) won't be getting Android Wear 2.0.
The Huawei Watch and LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition can both run the Android Wear 2.0 second developer preview, so we'd expect those phones to be set for the update as soon as it launches.
Testing
Android Wear 2.0 widgets
With Android Wear 2.0 you'll be able to customize most of the watch faces out there with complications from your favorite Android Wear apps.
That means if you've got a fancy-looking analogue face, you can add in small widgets to tell you what's coming up on your calendar, stock info, step counts, notes on what's next from your to-do list and more.
Android Wear
In the developer preview, not every watch face offered support for complications, but we're unsure whether that will be the case when it officially launches.
In actual use, this seems a little bit of a faff to get into - you'll need to choose a random face, open the menu with a long press and then choose complications. What's confusing is that you'll need to tap Android Wear to get into the system widgets, but when more apps are installed (like Strava) you'll get different options to play with there.
Android Wear
If you need to get more information, just tap the widget and you'll be taken straight into the app from the home screen – not just shortcuts any more, but actually useful.
The UI is also enhanced, with more minimal, muted colors and a darker theme to help conserve battery life, and it definitely looks a bit sleeker too.
Android Wear 2.0 other features
Other Android Wear 2.0 improvements include smart replies and upgraded handwriting recognition. The smart replies are generated by Google Assistant, which will take a look at what's been said and give you the most likely replies to easily tap and send off.
Android Wear
After that, you can clumsily sketch in big letters or numbers to send an easy reply to the recipient, although you won't be able to send them a long diatribe easily.
The text is recognized automatically though, and when we demoed the option it was very accurate.
The second developer preview of Android Wear 2.0 has brought gesture support to third-party apps. Whether any apps will make use of the new feature is currently uncertain.
Android Wear 2.0 will also bring direct cloud access via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cellular data, so smartwatches can work completely independently of phones and if you've got a cellular watch even make calls.
Fitness tracking is also being improved, with apps able to talk to each other and share information, to build a full picture of your activity. For example, you can track the calories you consume with one app and use another to see how many you burn, with all the data fed into Google Fit.
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