The Android Wear family is growing with every passing month and with so many new faces, Google has seen fit to announce that a Android Wear update is on its way. The update will bring three main areas of improvement for Android Wear users, including support for always-on apps, Wi-Fi, and gestures to control your wearable and how you interact with it.
First up, always-on app support will allow apps to stay on screen, meaning you will be able to see them on your watch display even after the screen has dimmed. This is not dissimilar to the option which allows your watch face to remain visible after dimming. This will definitely be an important feature once Android Wear apps start to get better and more useful, but we’ll have to see if battery life incurs any kind of penalty with this new feature.
Next on the list is Wi-Fi support. Unbeknownst to many people (including me), most of the Android Wear smartwatches out there support Wi-Fi, which means they can independently connect to a Wi-Fi connection. What this means is that after this Android Wear update drops, as long as your phone has a data connection and your smartwatch is connected to Wi-Fi, you will be able to get notifications.
Gestures looks to be one of the more interesting parts of this Android Wear update. The first gesture feature will allow you to scroll through notification items just by flicking your wrist. Google is also finally adding some easier phone capabilities into Android Wear, adding an apps list and contacts list once you tap the screen.
The last gesture feature Google elaborated on is emoji support, which will allow you to reply to messages simply by drawing an emoji with your finger and your smartwatch will figure out what emoji you meant.
All-in-all, this Android Wear update looks like it’s going to introduce a lot of neat features that are going to make your Android Wear experience just that much better. What do you think about these updates? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Google
