MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—At I/O
here this week, Google's top executives painted a new picture for how
we'll use Google in the future. We'll chat with Google in the Allo app, we'll talk with Google through the Google Home appliance, and we'll enter new worlds through Google VR. But don't forget about Google on your wrist with the newly updated Android Wear 2.
As its name suggests, Android Wear 2 is the second iteration of
Google's software for wearables. It was announced at the show, but it
won't be available to the general public until later this year. There
weren't many devices running it at I/O, but we spent a few fleeting
moments with the future of Android's most intimate operating system.
In short, it's everything you already know, with a few tweaks and a
handful of new features. (Check out our reviews of the Android
Wear-based Motorola Moto 360 Sport to get a feel for where the operating system is now.)
First and foremost is standalone apps. Android Wear was originally
designed as a companion for your smartphone, but Google is now giving
this pair a little space. Android Wear 2 apps will have independent
access to data and wireless communication services. You'll also be able
to use apps when your phone isn't handy. This will be great for anyone
who uses their Android Wear device as a fitness tracker.
It's not clear how many apps will be able to operate independently,
or in what circumstances it will happen. Will watches, for example,
start needing Wi-Fi and cellular radios? I don't know. But it's a huge
change and potential game changer for Android Wear. One of our biggest
complaints was that Android Wear did very, very little when separated
from a smartphone. It felt like a very expensive, underpowered adjunct
to your smartphone. With greater independence, Android Wear devices
finally have a chance to shine.
Android
Wear 2 will feature redesigned watch faces and support complications,
or those little extras on watch faces, like the date or phases of the
moon, that have been included in fine watches for over a century. But
it's more likely you heard about them when Apple made such a big deal about complications with the Apple Watch.
The complications for Android Wear 2 will be far more robust than
before. Apps can now send any data to the watch face, and users can
select any complication with any watch face. If you want the weather and
the current song playing on your headphones, you should be able to get
it.
A more subtle update to Android Wear 2 is how the system displays
apps. In this version, a list of apps is displayed in a gentle arc that
you scroll through using the watch crown (aka the dial, thanks again
Apple) or by swiping up and down across the screen. It seems simple, but
I found it to be a very effective means to quickly go through all of
the options available on the watch. I think I might actually prefer this
app selector to Apple's unique map of apps, although I'd have to spend
more time with Wear 2 before I could commit to that.
Messages have been greatly improved in Android Wear 2. When you
receive a text message, for example, you can respond with canned
responses similar to Inbox for Gmail.
These will get you through most situations, but you can give messages a
more personal touch. An on-screen keyboard, which supports gesture
typing, is a surprisingly effective means of communication. You can also
know write out your messages by hand (well, finger), by writing letters
directly on the screen. The letters you write scroll past as if on a
conveyor belt, and the watch did a surprisingly good job of interpreting
them correctly. It looked like there might be some autocomplete at play
here, but I couldn't be sure.
A quick note: the watch I saw had a fairly large watch face, even for
a smartwatch. While typing and writing on a watch made a lot of sense
on this device, I could see it being a major problem on a smaller one.
On the one hand, it's a smart use of the existing smartwatch design.
Google has a big canvas and would be foolish not to use it. The
downside, of course, is that the size of smartwatches has been a major
complaint of reviewers and consumers. Presumably, smartwatches will only
get smaller over time, making me wonder how long a life these messaging
features will have.
There will surely be other additions and tweaks that we'll get a look
at when Android Wear 2 launches. And truth be told, I'm still skeptical
if this will be enough to let Android-powered smartwatches make a huge
splash. But the continued investment by Google, and letting Wear devices
finally have a life beyond the smartphone, might finally deliver on the
promise of truly capable smart wearables.
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