Wear OS 3: all features and compatible connected watches – Frandroid

Google has announced a brand new version of its smartwatch system, Wear OS. Called Wear OS 3, it will gradually arrive on the market, but for which watches and with which functions? We take stock.

Last spring, Google announced a major novelty for Wear OS, its operating system for connected watches. Resulting from a merger with Tizen, the OS competing with Samsung, Wear OS 3 gradually landed on the market.

But what are the compatible connected watches, the integrated features and the new features planned for this new version of Wear OS? This is what we will see in this complete file.

Connected watches compatible with Wear OS 3

If Google announced the redesign of Wear OS on May 18, 2021, few models are currently benefiting from this new software resulting from the merger with Tizen. In fact, only two watches are already compatible, but other models are already planned, whether thanks to the update of watches already on the market or with the release of new ones. smartwatches.

Watches already under Wear OS 3

For now, only a few watches are already equipped with Wear OS 3. These are the latest models from Samsung:

Each of them is available in two formats (40 or 44 mm for the Galaxy Watch 4, 42 or 46 mm for the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic) and in two connectivity (Bluetooth or Bluetooth + 4G).

Watches that will be updated in Wear OS 3

Samsung’s two watches aren’t the only ones to benefit from Wear OS 3 in the near future, however. If the Korean firm is the only manufacturer to have launched watches already equipped with the latest Google system, other toquantes will be updated. This is the case with the latest watches from Fossil and Mobvoi:

These are smartwatches taking advantage of the latest version of Qualcomm’s watch chip, the Snapdragon Wear 4100 – or 4100+ in the case of the Fossil watch. It is therefore easy to imagine that watches with a less efficient chip will not be able to take advantage of this new version of Wear OS.

As usual, Fossil also offers multiple versions of its Gen. 6 for different brands with which the manufacturer works. We should therefore be entitled to Wear OS 3 on Michael Kors, Puma, Skagen, Emporio Armani or Diesel watches.

Future watches expected under Wear OS 3

In addition to Fossil, Ticwatch and Samsung, other manufacturers should launch in the near future watches under Wear OS 3. We think in particular of Oppo whose first connected watch, theOppo watch, was based on Wear OS 2 – while its Watch 2 is equipped with RTOS in China – but also to Fitbit. The American manufacturer, acquired in 2021 by Google, has already confirmed, during the Introducing the Fitbit Charge 5, that he was working on a Wear OS 3 watch instead of his own system, Fitbit OS.

Finally, insistent rumors point to a watch “Pixel Watch” which is currently under study at Google. However, it is not known whether it will be a Fitbit watch or a device designed directly by the Google teams.

New features in Wear OS 3

Google has not been talkative about the new features planned for Wear OS 3. At the Google I / O conference, the firm unveiled some essentially iterative new features such as better battery management or better performance. However, it was not until the release of the first models to really discover what Wear OS 3 was capable of.

The novelties presented in this file are therefore mainly those related to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic and Galaxy Watch 4, but they may be interpreted differently by different manufacturers in the future, as in the case of gestures or l software interface.

Better performance and longer battery life

At the Google I / O conference on May 18, 2021, Google presented its partnership with Samsung as aiming to offer “A unified platform focused on faster performance, longer battery life and a thriving developer community”.

In concrete terms, the new version of Wear OS makes it possible to launch applications 30% faster, with an identical processor, than Wear OS 2. The animations are also smoother to switch from one screen to another. On the battery side, while CPU power, screen size, and battery capacity obviously have a role to play, Wear OS 3 can now use low-power CPU cores for certain metrics like pace. heart rate or the number of steps. Therefore, these tasks are not as energy intensive as on previous versions of the system.

Third-party application tiles

With Wear OS – which then succeeded Android Wear – Google added a new function since taken over by most watches on the market: tiles. These are screens that can be found by sliding left or right from the main dial to find certain information from different applications.

However, these tiles were still particularly limited in their use. Indeed, if we could find the weather data, those of Google Fit or the widgets of applications preinstalled by the manufacturer, it is impossible for the user to add tiles from third-party applications. This is now possible with Wear OS 3.

The new version of the OS for smartwatches allows third-party developers to design their own tiles thanks to the opening of the Tiles API. Users can therefore install an application from the Google Play Store directly on their watch, then display the corresponding application tile on the right of the home screen if they wish.

Better management of shortcuts

Also during the presentation of the new version of Wear OS to Google I / O, the firm quickly mentioned a new management of shortcuts. Concretely, users will be able to use the different physical buttons on their watch to launch their favorite application. In the example shown by Google, a double press on one of the two keys of the watch will return to the previously opened application, as is already the case with the double press on the multitasking button on smartphones.

On the Galaxy Watch 4, Samsung has also enabled user customization of the two buttons. You can thus choose to launch a particular application with a double press on the top button. This function should be offered on all watches running Wear OS 3 on the market.

Customizable interface by manufacturers

While Android smartphone users are used to having different software interface proposals depending on the brand of their phone, this was not the case until now on Wear OS.

It seems that this is one of the main new features of Wear OS 3, at least on the Samsung side. On its Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic, the Korean firm has offered a personalized interface, quite distinct from that present on previous Wear OS watches, and which is very clearly inspired by what we find on its own smartphones. Logically baptized One UI Watch, the interface uses the same menus as on Galaxy smartphones.

For now, it is not known whether this possibility for manufacturers to offer their own software interface will be exclusive to Samsung – as a privileged partner of Google – or if other manufacturers will be entitled to it. We can imagine in any case that some brands, which do not have a particular manufacturer interface to highlight such as Fossil or TicWatch, will adopt the basic interface of the system while others – such as Samsung or Oppo – could customize the system. software experience.

No need for the Wear OS app anymore

In the same vein, it no longer seems that the Wear OS application on a smartphone is essential to connect your watch to your phone.

In the case of the new Galaxy Watch 4, the Wear OS application from Google – which until now was used to set up and configure the watch from your smartphone – is not necessary at any time. The manufacturer indeed asks users to install its own application, Galaxy Wearables.

In fact, even if Google has not yet confirmed this data, it seems that manufacturers can use their own pairing application, without having to go through Google’s. Here again, we still do not know how the different manufacturers will position themselves. If Ticwatch and Fossil were already taking advantage of their own apps, manufacturers could now choose to go through them only, without users needing to install Wear OS on their phone.

Personalized gestures by the manufacturers

The release of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 has revealed a little novelty in the different gestures on Wear OS 3, at least at Samsung. While Google’s system has so far required the press of a button to open the list of apps while a swipe of the dial from the bottom to the top has opened up notifications, Samsung has taken a different route.

On the Galaxy Watch 4, the list of installed applications can be accessed by sliding your finger up and down, as if to find the application launcher on Android. The buttons are only used to return to the home screen or to return to the previous application.

For now, it is not yet clear whether this particular navigation will be exclusive to Samsung or whether the different manufacturers will adopt different gestures from each other. Still, it seems that in addition to a custom design for the software interface, Wear OS 3 also allows more possibilities for customizing gestures for manufacturers.

Wear OS 3 release date

As we have seen, Wear OS 3 will not only arrive with the next watches on the market, but also thanks to updates on a handful of watches already on the market.

For now, only the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic are already benefiting from this new version of Wear OS. Nevertheless, Mobvoi plans an update of its TicWatch Pro 3 and Ticwatch E3 in the course of the second half of 2022. On the Fossil side, the update of the Fossil Gen. 6 to Wear OS 3 is scheduled for next year, without further details.