Al Google I/O 2023 the Mountain View giant has not only presented new ones smartphone e tablets, but also showed the Wear OS 4 operating system for smartwatches. This has received several useful innovations aimed at improving the user experience of the owners of wearable electronic devices. Let's see in detail what changes from the previous version which, remember, is still there late on TicWatch.
Google has announced, together with the Pixel Fold and the Pixel Tablet, also the Wear OS 4 interface for smartwatches. Here's the news
According to the developers, one of the key features of the Wear OS 4 firmware is the improvement of efficiency energy. This was partly facilitated by a new approach to creating virtual watch faces using the built-in designer, developed by the brand together with Samsung. It provides for the creation of XML settings files through which it is possible configure the behavior and appearance of watch faces without writing executable code. Thus, developers no longer have to worry about display logic or code optimization to save battery power. In addition, the designer allows the company to reduce the code base that needs to be updated when a new operating system is released - this, in turn, speeds up the release of updates.
Also, Wear OS 4 has become faster in speech synthesis and securely transfers settings from old watches to new ones. At the same time, the operating system allows you to view, add to favorites and reply to emails using the Gmail box. And in Google Calendar, you can now view your schedule, respond to invitations, and mark tasks as done. Among other news, Google announced the release of the smartwatch apps WhatsApp and Peloton, plus Spotify's new features: tiles that let you play the latest podcast episodes, view rotation, and listen to music curated by the service.
The release of Wear OS 4 will happen before the end of the year – the exact date has not yet been announced. The firmware is now only available in the form of developer preview test builds via the emulator.
What's new in Wear OS 4
- Improved energy efficiency thanks to the integrated designer
- Create virtual watch faces without writing executable code
- Improved text-to-speech speed
- Safe transfer of settings from old to new watches
- Ability to manage email and calendar through the device
- New apps available such as WhatsApp and Peloton
- New Spotify features like podcast playback and curated music
- Shrinking the codebase to speed up updates
