Google is reportedly working on Wear OS 4 with plans to debut the new smartwatch operating system this fall.
According to a report from Android Police, Google will base Wear OS 4 on Android 13, and it will have a “great selection of new features and optimizations.”
The publication also highlighted ‘Watch Face Format,’ which will allow developers to create Wear OS watch faces in a “declarative XML format” without the need to write code. Wear OS 4 will reportedly optimize watch faces automatically to improve battery and performance.
Wear OS 4 will reportedly bring several under-the-hood improvements too, including some that will make it more power efficient — a good thing when you’re working with such a tiny battery. (Hopefully, that means it will let my Pixel Watch reliably get through a full 24 hours on one charge.)
Other important improvements detailed by Android Police include a native backup and restore tool to improve the experience of switching between Wear OS watches, more reliable text-to-speech, and a change to set-up that will automatically carry any permissions granted on your phone over to your watch.
On top of that, Google reportedly plans to bring native Calendar and Gmail apps to Wear OS, which will allow users to respond to event invites and emails on their wrists. Wear OS 4 will gain deeper integration with Google Home as well and will be able to show enhanced device options like light controls and camera previews.
With Wear OS 4 aimed at a fall launch, it’s possible we could see it debut on the Pixel Watch 2. Wear OS 3 launched with Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 series, and Wear OS 3.5 was released with the Watch 5 line, but now that Google has its own Wear OS-powered watch, it doesn’t need to rely on Samsung to debut new Wear OS updates.
Source: Android Police
