Android Wear 2.0 unveiled
Some expected new Android Wear hardware at I/O 2016, but Google went in the opposite direction and decided to unveil a huge update to the OS, dubbed Android Wear 2.0.
The new version aimed at “staying connected to what matters," will focus on the watch faces, messaging and fitness aspects of the OS. Though this may sound slightly boring at first, the interesting part is actually the introduction of standalone apps, something that, up until now, hadn’t been permitted.
Standalone Apps
This is the biggest change and it means that you will no longer have to rely on your phone to use apps on your Android Wear device. The wearable will now be able to communicate through Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or 3G/4G networks, instead of depending on a phone or cloud syncing.
Though most Wi-Fi enabled smartwatches can already connect up to Wi-Fi, this is especially a big deal for iPhone users who own Wear watches, as it means you can now download apps straight to the watch.
Design changes
Recently, Google has been updating its Material design guidelines with a number of new rules and guidelines, which are included in the Android N Developer Preview. With Android Wear 2.0, Google is finally bringing these changes over to wearables
The changes won’t simply be copied over from Android N though. Each design element is being specially optimized for Wear watches, meaning a redesigned app launcher and an overall look that better fits round screens.
Google has also changed the way you navigate through apps – instead of the usual left and right swipe to find an app, you can now push the side button to display them in a slight arc.
One last change Google has made, but perhaps the most important one, is changing the overall colour palette of the OS. With this update, Google has decided to switch to a darker palette, with white text being shown on dark backgrounds, instead of black on white. The goal of this is to reduce the battery consumption on watches with OLED displays.
Messaging
Up until now, it was near enough impossible to send messages from the screens on our wrists, but thanks to the latest update, Android Wear now includes new input methods.
The most interesting method is the new keyboard that can be swiped over to let you type out messages, while the second method handwriting recognition, which allows you to draw out single letter to form words on the screen.
When the update launches, Google will be offering its own native keyboard to all Android Wear devices running the update, though it is also opening the door for third party keyboard apps, meaning we could see the likes of Swiftkey on our wrists in the near future.
As well as these methods though, Google is also bringing over smart replies, a feature Gmail users will probably be familiar with that gives you to options of three possible responses so that you can reply quickly.
Fitness
Fitness trackers are an especially popular market, so it’s no surprise Google wants to take advantage of this by including a number of fitness-related updates in the latest Android Wear update.
Now, Google is integrating Google Fit into the OS at a deeper level, with the addition of automatic activity tracking recognition. Depending on the activity it detects, one app or another will automatically launch, so, for example, if you start running it’ll automatically launch Strava.
As well as this, the OS now allows third party fitness apps to exchange data through Google Fit, meaning your Strava data can now appear in other fitness apps you may have installed.
Notifications
Up until now, every time you received a notification on your Android Wear watch, a huge message would appear on the screen taking up most of the screen real estate. With this update though, this all changes.
Now, whenever a notification is received, the watch face will display smaller icons which will be manageable with a progress bar on the bottom of the display showing how many cards are in the stack.
Whenever you raise your watch to activate it, the watch will pull up the card notification before hiding it again, though you will still be able to swipe up from the bottom to go through your notifications.
So that's everything there is to know about Android Wear 2.0. What do you think of the update? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to stay tuned for the latest tech news!
Source: | Google |
-
Via: | The Verge |
-
Image Credits: | Wareable | | Android Authority |
