“We’re bringing the watch closer to the rest of the Android family.” Google I/O may have shelved Wear OS 7, but a major new update is quietly rolling out, and it’s all about AI
While the Google I/O keynote was packed with announcements about big changes to Google Search and Gemini, and features designed to usher in the era of the ‘agent web’, we didn’t hear much about wearable devices. However, Google is bringing some changes to Wear OS 7 for users of top Android watches, and the rollout will begin later this year, although an exact date has not been specified.
For starters, Google’s Gemini Intelligence, its full-featured, personalized AI assistant, is coming to Wear OS and the rest of the Android family. You’ll be able to interact with Gemini on both your wrist and your Android phone, and you’ll get the same agent help that Google devoted most of its keynote to.
Android’s Live Updates feature is coming to watches. This innovative Android phone feature provides a summary of important updates about an ongoing task, such as a pizza order or turn-by-turn directions. You now get a timeline on your watch with a small square marker tracking your progress, along with a summary of your order status, a countdown to your next spin, or other helpful updates.
Latest videos of
Google is also working on an AppFunctions API (for those who don’t know, API stands for ‘application programming interface’), which allows developers to “integrate their apps with agents and assistants, like Google Gemini.”
Using a smartwatch’s microphone, users can issue a voice command and a specially designed AI agent will take it from there and complete tasks for them. Intelligent.
According to Google, users will also “be able to invoke and track automated app tasks, for select phone apps, right from their watch, such as placing an order with DoorDash.” This feature will be implemented without the need for any development tweaks, suggesting that Google sees voice as the future of watches.
Google isn’t the only smartwatch maker anticipating AI interaction in this way: Coros is also prioritizing voice as a key way to interact with AI from wearable devices, and CEO Lewis Wu suggests that a future-proof smartwatch is one with a microphone.
Sign up to receive breaking news, reviews, opinions, high-tech deals and more.
There’s also a new standardized Wear Workout Tracker feature that will be part of future exercise apps, making it easier for fitness app developers to add things like media control to their on-watch interfaces. Speaking of media control, it will also be updated to control auto-start after pressing Play; For example, if you start playing a song on Spotify, the controls will automatically appear on your Pixel Watch 4.
Finally, expect the battery life of Wear OS watches to improve by around 10%, meeting our predictions and helping them perform all these new AI-powered tasks.
Follow TechRadar on Google News andadd us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds.
