What you need to know
- Ahead of next month’s Google I/O, Google has announced a tentative schedule for developer sessions.
- One of these sessions is a preview of Wear OS 5 and serves as Google’s first official confirmation that a Wear OS upgrade is coming this year.
- The description for the “Building for the Future of Wear OS” session provides some initial details about the impact of the upgrade.
Google I/O 2024 is quickly coming to the fore as the event begins in just a few weeks and may bring new hardware and software announcements from Google. The company gave us our first real idea of what to expect when it released a preliminary 2024 I/O schedule on Thursday, April 25th. This timeline includes early confirmation that a Wear OS upgrade is coming soon.
There are four main event categories at Google I/O this year: Mobile, Web, ML/AI and Cloud. One of the mobile sessions is titled “Building for the Future of Wear OS” and specifically mentions Wear OS 5 – the unreleased version of Wear OS originally expected this year – as a focus. Back in January, hints of Wear OS 5 were spotted in an Android 14 build, suggesting an upgrade was on the horizon.
Still, there has been no official confirmation from Google that Wear OS 5 will be released in the near future. While we expect to hear about upcoming Android updates at Google I/O, Wear OS upgrades tend to be released on a staggered and inconsistent schedule. That’s why Google’s announcement is more important than a typical Google I/O software announcement and bodes well for the future of Google’s wearable ecosystem.
What we know so far about Wear OS 5
Surprisingly, Google revealed a little about Wear OS 5 in the description of its preview session. “In this talk we will discover the new features of Wear OS 5,” says Google. “This includes advances in the watchface format and the way to design and build for the increasing range of device sizes.”
The Watch Face Format was introduced with Wear OS 4 about a year ago, and Google explains that it “can be used to create watch faces directly or can be integrated into creation tools so designers can create watch faces without having to write them.” executable code.” This shifted much of the burden of creating a custom watch face – such as optimization, updates, and bug fixes – from the individual developers to the Wear OS platform. Additionally, a unified watch face editing interface has been added for both first- and third-party options.
This gives watch face designers plenty of options to customize their offerings and combines well with Samsung’s Watch Face Studio, which can create XML-formatted watch faces in Watch Face format.
So Google’s talk about updating the watchface format in Wear OS 5 could bring new features and options to your favorite watchfaces. There may be new ways to display complications, customize the appearance of a watch face depending on the situation, or add new design tools. This is all just speculation, but Google apparently has new tricks up its sleeve in the updated Watch Face format that will be unveiled at I/O 2024.
The only thing we know for sure is that the watch face format or watch face design software is being updated to help developers create for different smartwatch sizes. Google also says this in the Wear OS 5 showcase description, and it’s not exactly surprising. Rumors are circulating that Google will finally include a new, larger Pixel Watch size in the Pixel Watch 3 series later this year. It only makes sense that Wear OS watch faces look good on all Pixel Watch models.
We’ve come a long way since Google neglected Wear OS
Forget specific features – it’s a massive achievement that we’re even getting a Wear OS 5 upgrade this year. Wear OS devices are on the rise: Samsung is releasing excellent Galaxy Watch models and Google joined in over a year ago with the Pixel Watch. In this context, it’s easy to forget how weak the entire Wear OS platform was just a few years ago.
If you look at Google’s Wear OS forums, you’ll find countless examples of early Wear OS users describing the platform’s uncertain future and issues that have remained unresolved for months or years. A 2020 post asked “Is Google giving up on Wear OS?” and received support from other Wear OS users before it was banned and replies disabled. The problem mentioned in the post? Google had developed a YouTube Music app for watchOS, but not for Wear OS. It’s a perfect microcosm of the problems that plagued the dark days of Wear OS.
Now things are picking up again and the release of Wear OS 5 this year could be the start of a consistent annual release schedule for major version updates for Google. That would bring it in line with Apple’s watchOS release schedule and would be great news for Wear OS users. The hardware available in Wear OS watches is quite good in 2024 thanks to chips like the Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen 1, but the software still lags behind Apple Watch models in many ways. Now that Google and its partner Samsung are apparently fully committed to Wear OS, that could finally change.