Samsung, Google, and Fitbit are partnering to save the Wear OS that has been neglected for too long.
Apple is leading in the smartwatch business. It updates its Watch OS regularly. It also releases a new Apple Watch every year.
Wear OS with Fresh Experience
And it’s one reason Google is refocusing its efforts on the smartwatch space. It wants to bring various apps to Wear OS with a fresh and updated experience.
In the recent Google IO 2021, Google announced that it is going to partner with Fitbit and Samsung to build a unified platform to create the best Wear OS and Wizen.
“Samsung and Google have a long history of collaboration. Now, we’re bringing the best of Wear and Tizen into a single, unified platform. By working together we have been able to take strengths of each and combine them into an experience that has faster performance, longer battery life and more of the apps you love available for the watch.” – Google
The new platform will be renamed Wear.
Unfortunately, Google didn’t give screenshots about the new OS.
Samsung said that it is going bring the best of Tizen. However, experts are more interested in the hardware. The next version of Wear will run on Galaxy Watch 4. Furthermore, it is going to put its Exynos system on a chip to break free of Qualcomm.
Samsung is not actually great at competing with Qualcomm in the smartphone SoCs. However, it has effectively beaten Qualcomm in smartwatch SoCs.
Without a viable SoC vendor, Wear OS will have no chance to compete with the Apple Watch. As mentioned earlier, Apple’s smartphone improves every year.
Wear OS, on the other hand, has plenty of problems. It has no viable foundation.
Google said that the next version of its Wear will have faster performance and longer battery life. Plus, it will have a thriving developer community.
Fitbit, on the other hand, promised to bring the best Fitbit to the upcoming Google Wear OS. It said that it will build premium smartwatches based on Wear.
Spotify New Feature on Wear
Spotify also teased an exciting feature that will come to Wear devices. This feature will allow users to download music directly to their watch.
They can listen to music when they don’t have their phones. However, the feature is not part of the redesign that it released. But the music streaming service said that it is working on it.
YouTube Music App Update on Wear
But it’s not only Spotify that will update its app on Wear. YouTube Music app will also receive an update that will let users download music directly to their Wear devices. Yes, just like Spotify’s update.
Apple has already provided offline music listening ability. Apple Watch users can download songs from Apple Music so they can listen to them when they are away from a phone. This feature has been around for years.
When Google shut down its Play Music, Wear OS users didn’t have enough options for offline listening.
Google Wear update will be rolling out this year.
