Google is updating its smartwatch operating system by rolling out a version of Android Wear based on Android 8.0 Oreo.
The update brings a handful of new features, updates for existing features, and support for 7 additional languages and regions.
Of course, it might be a while before you get the update, if you ever do. It’s up to watch makers to decide if and when to roll out the latest version of Android Wear to their users.
Google’s Hoi Lam outlined some of the changes in the new version of Android Wear:
- You can set the vibration strength for notifications.
- There’s a “touch lock” option that requires you to turn on the screen with the power button.
- There are new notification channels.
- Battery saving background limits have been put in place (this is similar to Android Oreo for phones).
It’s not the most exciting changelog, which might explain why the version number of Android Wear has only been bumped from 2.0 to 2.6. But I suppose it’s good to have any updates at all if you’re one of the handful of people using an Android Wear smartwatch.
New countries and languages supported in Android Wear 2.6 are:
- Dutch/Belgium
- Czech/Czech Republic
- Spanish/El Savador
- Spanish/Honduras
- English/Nigeria
- Spanish/Paraguay
- Portuguese/Portugal
via Android Police
If only there were compelling hardware to run this on.
The best smart/superwatch I can say is the Huawei Watch, so that’s saying something.
Would love to have something like the Samsung Gear S3 Frontier instead, but I can’t stand Samsung’s software chops, and Tizen isn’t that good.
Yay for Belgium and Portugal!