Fossil produces what is possibly one of the better Smartwatches available running Android Wear or Wear OS. Their watches manage to capture the allure and feel of traditional smartwatches while bringing it into the future with modern smartwatch functionality. With their recent release of the Wear OS 3 powered Gen 6 smartwatches, it seems like a new update may have just cleaned house; removing a reported 33 watch faces from their library.
The update which was pushed through the PlayStore introduced two new watch faces: Dashboard Digital and Fitness Digital. The new watch faces come with a minimal design but seems to be focused on delivering information that might be important to the Fossil smartwatch owner. Fitness Digital, as the name suggests, focuses on the metrics related to fitness and health; while Dashboard Digital focuses on more essential details.
Source: Fossil Group
9to5 Google has reported that with the introduction of the new smartwatch faces, the Fossil Gen 5 lineup also loses 33 watch faces out of the blue. If you were using one of the watch faces listed below, it’s likely you had a rude awakening with the smartwatch reverting to its default watch face when the update was rolled out.
The list of confirmed watch faces is listed below:
Big Tic
Blue
Candice Huffine
Colorist
Compass
Cory Richards
Darryl Westly
Defender
Ettore
Flip Digital
Fred
Grant
KJ Apa
Magic 8-Ball
Mandy Moore
McKinney
Mechanical Digital
Men’s Fashion Digital
Minimal Dressy
Minimalist Analog
Mood
Movember
Movember Analog
Movember Digital
No Icon Digital
P-51
Rainbow
Robot
Roulette
Sail Dial
Scarlette Shimmer
Speedometer
Turn Table
It hasn’t been ascertained if older generations of Fossil smartwatches are affected. That said, the reduction in the number of watch faces could be a good thing when it comes to the Gen 5 Fossil smartwatches. It could indicate that Fossil is preparing the smartwatch for the jump to Wear OS 3. However, nothing has been confirmed by Fossil at the time of writing.
Nope, it is nothing revolutionary new. They call it the Wear OS 3, and nothing more. The name of the upcoming update to Google’s Wear OS is less revealing of the updates that is coming for Google’s wearable platform though.
Google Wear OS 3 can be seen as the biggest overhaul to the platform since its introduction. It started out, at least for us, when Google and Samsung announced their collaboration and commitment to smartwatches in the 2021 edition of Google I/O. The announcement from Samsung only means that the South Korean electronics giant is abandoning Tizen OS that they have developed and nursed over the years over Google’s Wear OS.
To be fair, while that is a huge commitment from Samsung, it is also a sensible move for them. It means that Samsung gets to merge their existing developer base to Google Wear OS’ larger developer base. It only means that they get more content and potentially more features for their Samsung Galaxy Watch platform too.
Source; Google
For Google, having a partner that is considered the best in the business with plenty more accolades than themselves means a lot more than just getting a helping hand. Sure, the extra hand in developing Wear OS is great. It is also a great way to understand how Samsung made the Galaxy Watch brand the brand that it is. Their partnership with Samsung is also quite natural in a lot of ways, since Samsung has been one of Google’s strongest partner brands in the Android smartphone world. Partly, it also means that Google have one less thing spend resources for development.
Samsung announced a few weeks ago that their upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, suspected to be launching in the August 11th Galaxy Unpacked event, will be the first in their line-up and the probably the world to be running this new mash up of Google’s Wear OS and Tizen OS. They called it their One UI; of course. But One UI is just an overlay of the Operating System (OS) that is the Wear OS. At that point, it was nameless.
Source: Samsung
Google sort of announced Wear OS 3 about 15 hours ago. While it was not a revolutionary name, it is a significant update over the older Wear OS. They have started detailing which devices will get the update, for example. Most of the older generation hardware will not be getting Wear OS 3, unfortunately. In that case, if you are running a Wear device that has existed in the market for more than a year, you might want to consider retiring it and getting a new one. Of course, we will tell you to wait for the first Google Wear OS 3 devices to hit the market first before deciding.
One of Google’s biggest Wear OS device partners, Fossil has confirmed that they will be updating some of their latest generation smartwatches to Google Wear OS 3 in the coming months. They are also promising new generation wearables later on after the launch of Wear OS 3. While not officially available in Malaysia, you might want to consider looking at Mobvoi’s latest generation smartwatches if you want something that can be updated to Wear OS 3. Of course, if you can wait until September 2021, why not just get the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4?
The next big update to Wear OS, the Wear OS 3 is expected to come to watches launching in this half of the year onward. You can expect Samsung to also be among the first manufacturers to boast Google Wear OS 3, albeit in their own One UI skin. Updates to current generation smartwatches to Wear OS 3 is expected to come in in the mid of 2022 onward.
TAG Heuer is a respectable watchmaker. They are one of the most recognisable brands in the world of watch makers and collectors. Sure, compared to brands like Patek Philippe, Hublot, and even Rolex, TAG Heuer seems to sit at a lower position. Still, they make watches that would still cost you anywhere from MYR 3,000 and above. They also made some of the most memorable collection pieces in the world of watch making.
TAG Heuer is a little different than most luxury watchmakers though. They are a little more adventurous with their branding. While plenty of watchmaking brands refrain from being title sponsors in the sporting world, TAG Heuer was aggressive in promoting their brand in the sporting world. Their most significant push was into the world of Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsports, as official timekeepers for the longest time.
They are also, to this day, the only luxury watchmaker that dabbles in the world of smartwatches. Of course, because Apple develops their own watch with a very guarded WatchOS, Samsung’s Tizen OS is also a brand exclusive, and FitBit’s interface is not exactly created for smartwatches, TAG Heuer is left with Google’s Wear OS. Then again, this is not TAG Heuer’s first Wear OS smartwatch.
Source: TAG Heuer
The Connected series, as they call it is the watchmaker’s only Wear OS line-up. It is still currently the only luxury Google Wear device to hit the market. With prices starting at US$ 2,000, you can have your TAG Heuer Connected built with different materials to suit your taste. Now, you can look dorky with a new Super Maria limited edition too.
Yes, to be fair, the Super Mario collaboration from TAG Heuer is not really an announcement of a new product. It is merely an expansion, or a limited edition of an existing product line. The collaboration also brings with it new watch faces exclusive to the series. They are all Super Mario inspired. With the new watch faces, you also get new notification animations, especially when you hit a fitness goal let’s say.
While it is merely just a Google Wear OS device, there are some uniqueness to a Connected that makes it somewhat desirable. It has a proper crown that rotates and pushes in as a button for easier navigation of Wear OS. It has two very well-defined button too for more navigation work on your watch. Physical buttons and knobs on a smartwatch, we think, is the best way to navigate its interface still. The TAG Heuer x Super Mario Connected watch obviously has the very recognisable Mario branding on the crown. But all Connected smartwatches comes with TAG Heuer’s signature thick bezel look and stellar build quality; those are given because, TAG Heuer.
Source: TAG Heuer
You can expect the TAG Heuer x Super Mario Connected smartwatch to cost north of US$ 2,000 (MYR 8,401*). It is a special limited edition after all. In a sense, the Super Mario smartwatch should also appeal to the younger crowd, which is what TAG Heuer wants anyway. There is a problem, however. That problem lies mostly with Wear OS.
Wear OS is in a weird place now. We want to say that Google’s Wear OS is undergoing a transformation journey, one that we cannot see. Google announced that they are partnering exclusively with Samsung to move Wear OS into the future. Samsung’s huge success with their Tizen OS means that they are a prime candidate to co-develop the next wearable OS with. Samsung will also be giving up Tizen OS for that matter but gaining a whole new community of developers in return.
There are rumours that the next Wear OS that is co-developed with Samsung will require a new set of hardware to properly run. That also means that older hardware like TAG Heuer’s Connected smartwatch might not be able to run Wear OS. While Qualcomm has claimed that older Snapdragon for wearables can run later versions of Wear OS, we cannot be sure until the next iteration of Wear OS hits devices.
Source: TAG Heuer
Source: TAG Heuer
Source: TAG Heuer
Source: TAG Heuer
Source: TAG Heuer
The TAG Heuer X Super Mario smartwatch comes with its own special edition case and obviously its own special straps. Its looks are subjective to its wearer, to be fair. To us, it looks like a regular smartwatch. It features whatever the regular Tag Heuer Connected smartwatch features too, including the current generation Google Wear OS.
It is a cool smartwatch to own if you have the money. At the same time, it might be a risky buy. Smartwatches are not statement piece material. A smartwatch must be functional as well, and of course, updated. In that case, the TAG Heuer x Super Mario Connected smartwatch’s price tag comes with a big ‘if’. It is great if it updates to the next Wear OS, it will be a glorified paper weight if it does not.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1=MYR 4.20 on xe.com as of 14/07/2021
Google I/O happened last week and there was a lot to take in and dissect even from the two-hour long keynote to kick the Google’s 2021 developers conference off. We highlighted our favourite moments and things that we learned from Google I/O 2021. What caught our attention this year was their WearOS partnership with Samsung announcement. Android 12 is getting a huge visual revamp too this year. At the end of the show, something else caught our attention, and that was the Project Starline.
Google’s Wear OS is about to get a revamp and overhaul thanks to their new formed partnership with Samsung. This also means that Samsung will be ditching their Tizen OS development and focus on developing Wear OS with Google. Funnily enough Fitbit is not really getting involved. While they spent a very small amount of time making the announcement, there is more to Wear OS and Samsung’s involvement than Google made it out to be though. Fitbit is also not entirely out of the picture at this point.
We also saw the new Android 12 with Material You design language. The UI is cleaner, more intuitive, and even more customisable now. It is technically more YOU, more personal. You can change your theme colours to fit YOU. You can tune certain UI features to YOU. It is even more personal too with a Privacy Dashboard. You can even turn off your camera and mic completely if you want to; even your camera app will not be able to access both functions.
Project Starline was amazing. In brought to life a concept that we though will never see the light of day until way later. The whole pandemic situation has isolated us even more, and with conditions expected to take a turn for the worse in the coming year, physical connection to other human beings is sorely missed. Project Starline is as close as you can get to a physical touch and interaction to others at this point of time. To be fair, the technology is still in its early development stage and brings 3D and holographic telecommunications to life. It was encouraging and exciting to see, but we wonder how practical it would be if you want to bring that kind of technology to your homes or offices.
Google I/O 2021 is happening right now. The three-day conference kicked off with a bang though. To put it bluntly, Google I/O 2021 kicked off with a two-hour keynote highlighting everything coming from Google in 2021. While two hours do sound like a lot of drag, the announcements do sound mighty interesting though.
Google Workspace for Everyone
Source: Google
They kick off with something that everyone is concerned about in the period of pandemic, working from home. For that Google has something called Google Workspace. Google Workspace has been one of the most popular and thriving services since the world has gone into isolation with the looming pandemic situation. In 2021, the suite is updated with something called Smart Canvas.
Smart Canvas is a collaborative workspace within Google Workspace built for project management and keeping track of a project with your team members. It is kind of like a private chat or conversation within the larger organisation, but much cleaner. You can create and share Google Docs, Sheets, and even Slides within the group and work on the files together in real time.
Workspace is also now integrated with Google Meet, Google Doc, Google Sheet, and Google Slides. That also means that you can have a meeting on Google Meet within Google Workspace, share your files across the chat, and even edit the files together with your team in the Meets room. It is all about making remote collaborative work as seamless and organised as possible. Google also said Google Workspace will be available for free later in the year.
More in Google Search
Source: Google
Google search can also bring contents or search results that comes from other parts of the world in different languages with the integration of Google Translate algorithm and Google Lens as well. On top of that, Google is improving their language understanding and processing algorithm that should benefit more than just Google Translate, Google Lens, and regular Google Search.
They developed something called Wavenet, to make Google Assistant sound more natural and more contextual. They put that together with something they call Multitask Unified Model (MUM). All these makes Google Search and Google Lens the most powerful search and item identification tool ever.
The technologies that got mashed together means that Google search is not just single words anymore. It could be a sentence, a photo, and even both. The results can turn to be more than just web suggestions too. The result can turn out to be top suggestions, a place, and even connect you to merchants to buy what you need. If you set up your Google wallet correctly with all your merchant memberships as well, Google can connect you directly to deals that might be tied to your memberships too. There is a bit more to that too with Google Chrome, where you can track back your shopping carts on various sites even after you close the page.
Cleverer Google Maps
Source: Google
Google Maps is technically the most popular navigation app in the world. But that does not mean the app is flawless. There is always room for improvements.
Eco and Safe Driving
For example, Google introduces an ‘Eco Mode’ into the app. That basically means Google will take you through the most fuel efficient and economical route to get you to where you want and need to be. It may not be necessarily the fastest though, just keep that in mind.
They also introduced ‘safer driving’ routes for Google Maps. Obviously, that is what we call it, not what Google calls it. The idea is to navigate you to routes that might avoid traffic with sudden braking points and overall a smoother, clearer ride. All these are obviously done with Google’s navigation algorithm, traffic analysis, and GPS data such as speed or acceleration that Google Maps itself can see and work with in real-time.
Better Live View
Source: Google
They have expanded on Live View too in this case. Google Maps Live View does not just include navigation data in Augmented Reality anymore. It now shows you street names so that you can navigate better. It also now includes points of interest, landmarks, and you can pull up information regarding a place including its reviews directly from Maps app itself. Google Maps is also introducing Live View indoors now. It starts with the major train stations and airport in Zurich for now. The feature will be introduced to Tokyo also next month.
More Details
If you are getting yourself around by driving though, Google Maps is also a lot more detailed. Major intersections with road crossings and traffic lights will now show on maps so that you are better prepared. With Google’s understanding on your behaviour, your routine, and your usual routes, Google can also highlight relevant information, landmarks, or points of interest for you. A breakfast takeaway for example, on a Monday morning drive to work.
On top of all of that, Google Maps can now be a tool to help you plan your day not just on the road. Google Maps can track or predict how busy and packed an area will be at certain times just so you do not have to squeeze into the area at that time. You could plan to go another day for example, or just not go at all if it is not important. This is important in this day and age where social distancing is a recommended practice.
LaMDA
Source: Google
LaMDA is meant to be a conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google says they have been using and testing it internally and it is powered by everything great about Google’s search engine and linguistic programming. In its demo, it sounds like an amazing piece of tech that could keep you having conversations with it from day to night.
It is programmed to know everything there is to know about our current world and situation. But it is not built to answer you with data necessarily. It is built to have natural conversations about the weather in general terms like “you might want to bring an umbrella in the afternoon”, rather than “there is a 78% chance of a light rain at 2.00 p.m.”.
While the answers that we saw from the demo does sound a little metallic and robotic at times, we cannot wait for LaMDA to be introduced into things like Workspace, YouTube, or even Google Maps. It is like having your own version of Iron Man’s JARVIS in your smartphone, or PC, or whatever you fancy.
More Organised Google Photos
Source: Google
Google Photos is a little bit more than just your photo gallery now though. It is now something you can use to create photo collages, to understand yourself better, and sort of your memory bank. Google’s image recognition recognises your photo patterns and puts all of them together to tell you that you tend to take photos of a certain context or a certain look. It tells you that you might be attracted to a certain sort of colour for example.
With Machine Learning (ML) as well, Google Photos can stitch multiple similar photos taken in succession to create a moving photo or video for you, even if there are gaps. Organisation and searching for your photos are even more intuitive too when you can find photos associated to certain celebrations for example.
Android 12 and Wear OS
Source: Google
Trust us when we say Android 12 is a huge overhaul of the Android OS. There is nearly no difference in terms of function, to be fair. Most of the changes are in the way things look and gets organised, and even customised. They call all this Material You design.
In terms of looks, things are a lot more intuitive, most organised, bigger, and a lot less cluttered. You get more control in how your User Interface (UI) looks in total as well. There are supposedly about 22% faster animation, they say.
You get more control over your own security and even privacy, and they are easier to access and understand with Privacy Dashboard. With the new UI as well, IoT controls are more front and center than before. There is a new improved remote app for your Android TV too.
Wear OS is getting a fresh lease of life too, thankfully. They want to make Wear OS a major smartwatch platform competitor to Apple’s WatchOS. To do that they managed to strike a partnership with their long-time partner, Samsung to bring Tizen and Wear OS together to make a more robust wearable operating system (OS) for everyone to use. Fitbit will also be introducing their own Wear OS later in the year and lend their expertise and know how in health and fitness into the upcoming Wear OS.
Your Safety, Privacy, and Protection Matters
Source: Google
Google has also improved their Google Password Manager. While the app still functions the same as before, you can now transfer password information from older devices. That also means that your passwords can be stored on-device instead of on-cloud. With Android’s on-device encryption nature, saving your managed passwords on your device could be a more secure option. With compromise alerts, you know when your accounts are accessed, and you can easily change passwords for whatever you have quickly via Password Manager.
Privacy Core
Google also introduced something called their Privacy Core. It is Google’s effort in giving control over information shared with Google back to its users. Supposedly as well, thanks to Privacy Core, you Live Caption sessions or translations will not be shared back to Google.
But security and privacy are more than that as well. It spreads to your search history, and even browsing history. Google is including an option now to delete ‘recent history’ on your Google Chrome.
Even in Google Maps, you can tell the app to not track your location history just so that the app does not collect your location data. You can allow Google Maps to track you accurately, or just give Google access to your approximate location now, in different apps. Not allowing Maps to track your data and build a history data also means that you are not going to get recommendations or suggestions from Google though. A worthy trade off, we think, for more privacy.
Better Health, Better Quality of Life
Source: Google
Since Google’s expansion and changing their own corporate name to Alphabet, they have been hugely involved in medical research. One of the places they have been pushing on is in the field of Mammograms. Google’s AI push into the platform means that screening for breast cancer is more accurate than ever. Their AI also helps doctors in understanding Mammograms and the severity in the diagnosis helping the health institutes prioritise different cases.
That is not all though. Dermatology is one huge field that could be expanded even using your own devices. Because this field has more to do with skin conditions, Google Lens can be an early diagnosis tool. You can take a photo of your skin conditions and Google can possibly identify what you have to a certain degree. Of course, nothing replaces a doctor in matters of treatments and full diagnosis, so Google can direct you towards a dermatologist near you via your browser. This feature will be available in the EU region by the end of the year 2021.
Project Starline
Source: Google
Speaking of health, we cannot ignore the current pandemic situation. We are all recommended to stay at home as much as possible and avoid as much human interaction as possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, while has brought humanity together more than ever, ironically has isolated us even more too.
Project Starline is a video chat tool that uses multiple cameras to create a 3D image model and project that 3D image to another part of the world. While that means that the file packages from that implementation are so bug that our regular internet speeds will not be able to cope, Google is working to compress the image files to a more sensible package size so that the images can be transferred using our regular internet connection.
The function of that is to implement a 3D video chat experience. While regular video chat today has progressed further than before, nothing replaces a physical presence and interaction. The idea with 3D projection calls looks to bridge that gap a little. Although you cannot touch the person still, having a 3D representation of a person is as close as you can get in having a physical presence in today’s world.
Google I/O 2021
Source: Google
To wrap up, Google announced that they are committing to shift their entire operation to carbon free energy sources by 2030. While Google has been proud of operating entirely on renewable energy, they are taking the first steps in relying on clean energy that does not leave any footprints. The commitment has led them to invest into Geothermal energy currently.
As promised by Google, the Google I/O 2021 is the largest ever. It is not just based on attendance though. It is also about the number of things that Google is introducing for 2021. It is also about Google’s commitments for the future, and we are excited, especially for Wear OS. For more information on what happened in Google I/O, you can check out Google’s Blog.
Android Wear or Wear OS as it was renamed a few years ago has been a little anaemic when it comes to updates; that is until NOW. Google took the stage at I/O 2021 to announce what could be the biggest and most important update to Wear OS: Google and Samsung are partnering to push Wear OS to the next level. The announcement confirms rumours which have been making their rounds for months.
Source: Google
The new partnership sees Samsung bring their know-how, expertise and features from their successful Tizen OS to Wear OS. As the companies put it, they are bringing “the best of their platforms together into one unified experience”. So what does this mean exactly? Well, the biggest change is that Samsung’s next Galaxy Watch will be shipping with Wear OS instead of Tizen OS. While this might seems like Samsung will be leaving their older watches behind, the company reassures its users that Galaxy Watch and other Tizen OS powered wearables will be receiving updates and support for at least 3 years after their launch.
Improvements Under the Hood
That aside, the new collaborative Wear OS approach also brings a slew of improvements that will not only be improving the user experience but also making developing for Wear OS a lot easier. The collaboration’s biggest improvement comes in its improved load time. Google is touting a whopping 30% improvement in app load times. In addition, Samsung and Google have made improvements to the lower layer of Wear OS to improve battery life. If you’ve used Wear OS smartwatches, you’d know that battery life can be an issue with them.
Source: Google
Google and Samsung have optimised background processes, making them more efficient and less intensive on the processors. In fact, processor-intensive processes like continuous heart rate monitoring have been optimised to use lower power cores to conserve power. This also opens the doors to more power-efficient features for wearable devices. Samsung has also helped with power efficiency with its bundled sensors which allow them to include more than one sensor in a single module.
More Diverse User Experience
Aside from improvements under the hood, the improvements are also creating a more diverse user experience. Manufacturers are now allowed to skin the operating system to have a more unified look across their devices. This also means that we might see slightly different experiences from manufacturers like Tag Heuer, Fossil and even Samsung will have their own design language when it comes to the user interface for their wearables. Google is expecting that the new customizability will result in a more diverse Wear OS ecosystem.
Google is also opening up more features in the OS to developers. Developers will be able to bring features like tiles to their apps. They have also integrated development for Wear OS into Android’s Development Studio. They are creating a more unified development experience across Android and Wear OS with a single touchpoint for development. Development is also made easier with Google’s Jetpack development suite which allows developers to call and implement API more readily. In addition, they are bringing Kotlin APIs to Wear OS.
Wear OS is also getting more focused on health with help from Samsung. Developers will be able to create new apps and improve their current apps with a more streamlined and simplified work flow. This comes thanks to the new Health Services platform which allows developers to retrieve data without building from scratch. Developers are able to take advantage of continuous data from the sensors and other contextual metrics without impacting the battery life of the device too much.
New Apps, Better Experience
Finally, these improvements directly impact how the OS performs and how accessible apps will be for the platform. The most direct improvements that users will be benefiting from is improved navigation on wearables. Google is bringing simple improvements like a double-tap to jump to your most recent app and even simpler swiping gestures to access your information.
Source: Google / Double Tap for Recent App
Source: Google / Tiles
Google is starting the ball rolling with updates coming to its core apps like Google Maps, Google Pay, Google Assistant and YouTube Music. The first change that will be coming to these apps is the adoption of the new “Material You” design. In addition, Google Maps will be getting better, more visible turn by turn navigation to help with using the app on the go. There are plans to take Google Maps offline. The same applies to YouTube Music as well. Google Assistant and Google Pay will be getting improvements as well. The latter will be making its way to 26 countries in the next few months while the former will become more user friendly on Wear.
It isn’t just Google that is improving its offerings. Spotify has revamped its experience on wearables; allowing users to seamlessly move on the go. The simplified interface allows users to not only control their music but also seamlessly switch between speakers and their Wear OS device. Other companies like Nike, Calm and Adidas have been working on revamping their experiences on OS. Fitbit will also join the Wear OS family. Wear OS apps will also be more visible on the Play Store with a dedicated section and recommendations.
The new Wear OS will be making its way to the market in the coming year. Current Wear OS devices find out if they are getting the big update in the coming months.
Google’s I/O is just around the corner and there are plenty of things to look forward to in Google I/O. One of them is improvements and updates to Wear OS. If you do not know what Wear OS is, it is basically Google’s perception of what a wearable interface should look like. The smartwatch OS can be found on plenty of smartwatches you can find on the market that is not a HUAWEI, or Samsung, or Fitbit, or Apple. In Malaysia, the most popular Wear OS smartwatch currently are still from Fossil.
While it is considered one of the major smartwatch interfaces you can find in the current market, contents for Wear OS can be limited. Of course, the app ecosystem for Wear OS is still growing and there are still room for improvements for the wearables that are equipped with Wear OS. Google also hardly updates or releases new apps on their own Wear OS, weirdly enough. Until now that is, with a certain GBoard.
Message the way you want to with the new Gboard ⌨️ on #WearOSbyGoogle. Multiple ways to message like voice, QWERTY keyboard or gestures ✔️ Enhanced suggestions and corrections ✔️ Multi-language support ✔️
GBoard is a keyboard, yes. In fact, it is one of the most popular and most loved keyboards in the world of Android. Some of the best and most popular Android smartphone sports GBoard as their default keyboard, that is how good it is. Wear OS also sports Google’s own default keyboard on the platform that has not been updated until now.
Previously known as Google Keyboard, GBoard gets a new update that borderlines a makeover of the app on Wear OS. The new Wear OS still retains the full QWERTY layout but with a more streamlined and cleaner design compared to the clunky Google Keyboard of old. Of course, GBoard also retains gestures and voice input functions. They are much easier to access now though.
Source: Google
The new GBoard also still has word suggestions, except that it is now scrollable instead of a drop-down menu. That makes word suggestion a lot more accessible and much more intuitive to work with. The word suggestion bar is also your quick access to input methods now. To allow for a bit more space and accessibility on the keyboard, the language toggle is now moved to the spacebar instead of a dedicated language button.
The update for Gboard for WearOS should be a huge welcome for the platform and its users. The platform, since its 2.0 release five years ago, have stagnated a little. Its last update was a minor update to version 2.23 with minute changes to improve its connectivity support and battery life mostly. Wear OS is expected to receive a major update in the upcoming Google I/O.
Samsung’s wearables have been one of the company’s many boons when it comes to software and functionality. If you’ve been following the wearables market, Samsung’s Tizen OS has quickly become one of the more functionally stable operating systems in the market. However, there’s always been a looming cloud over Tizen as Samsung’s own Galaxy devices come equipped with Google’s Android OS.
Twitter user and prolific leaker, @UniverseIce tweeted on Friday that Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Watch would be replacing its well thought out Tizen OS with Google’s Wear OS. If true, the switch would seem to benefit Google’s floundering Wear OS more than Samsung’s Galaxy Wearables lineup. It would also make Samsung one of the biggest names behind the OS aside from FOSSIL, Casio, and Skagen.
Samsung's new watch will use Android to replace Tizen.
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch series has seen much success in previous years thanks to its design and impressively thought-out software. This change seems to be rather uncharacteristic for Samsung given the popularity of the devices and also the company’s recent thrust for its SmartThings platform. That said, Samsung’s move to embrace Google’s services isn’t anything new. We’ve seen it in recent years with Bixby slowly taking a backseat to Google Assistant in the company’s OneUI.
That said, Samsung could very well be looking at offering a whole new series of smartwatches built for Wear OS. The other possibility is the company introducing a Wear OS version of the upcoming Galaxy Watch. This would bolster the number of the devices in Samsung’s Galaxy Ecosystem and create a new offering for those who have shied away from Samsung’s wearables for so long.
While highly unlikely, this could be an indication that Wear OS has finally reached a point where Samsung is comfortable putting it on their devices. There have been many limitations when it came to both Tizen and Wear OS. However, the former has consistently been able to keep up with new features and better customizability.
