Just over a month after releasing the Android Wear 5.1.1 update, Google is working on another major update for its smartwatch OS that will add tap gestures and a way for Android Wear watches to communicate between themselves. According to sources of Phandroid, the next update to Android Wear will add support for interactive watch faces that will allow you to simply tap on the screen once to launch an app, change the detail being displayed by the watch face, and more. While some of the watch faces in the Android Wear Play Store are already capable of doing this, they do it via a hacked method that can lead to conflicts with the system.
From the leaked documents available to Phandroid, Google is providing four different ways that a single tap can be used by them. This includes a change in how the watch face looks, state changes, launching an activity, and displaying more information. The company has already informed Android Wear watch face developers of these changes, so that they can update their watch faces by the time the update is officially announced. Google plans on promoting a bunch of interactive watch faces on the Google Play Store, when it starts rolling out the update.
Further, to avoid conflict with the way launcher is activated in Android Wear, which is currently done by tapping anywhere on the watch face, with its new tap gesture, Google will be changing the way the launcher is activated in the upcoming update. Instead of tapping anywhere on the screen, users will access the launcher via a simple right to left swipe on the screen. In addition to this, Google is also working on a new watch-to-watch communication feature in Android Wear called Together. This will allow Android Wear users to send each other emojis, doodles, stickers, messages, and more. Other details about this feature remain unknown though. Lastly, the upcoming update for Android Wear will also enable Wi-Fi support on the LG G Watch R. With the Android Wear 5.1.1 update, Google had added support to a bunch of Android Wear smartwatches, but the G Watch R was left behind despite having all the necessary hardware. This irked a lot of G Watch R customers, but LG later clarified to them that it will be adding this functionality to the watch in a future update. The update was initially scheduled to roll out in late July, but has now been delayed to sometime in August. What do you think about these upcoming new features of Android Wear?
