Google's Wear OS platform is packed with features that makes smartwatches tick, and while it's not matched watchOS for success, it's a powerful platform.
IOt started inside of smartwatches made by Samsung, LG and Motorola. More recently, but it now powers Fossil and its brands like Skagen and Michael Kors, Oppo and Mobvoi's TicWatch series.
Google has made significant changes to improve the experience of living with a Wear OS-packing smartwatch, including iPhone compatibility and better fitness experiences.
What is Wear OS by Google?
For every smartwatch, there's a software platform running on-screen. With the Apple Watch, it's watchOS. For Fitbit, it's FitbitOS. You get the idea.
Wear OS works slightly differently, however, as Google partners with third-party smartwatch makers. So, instead of a Google-branded smartwatch, you'll instead see watches such as the Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle, Fossil Sport, TicWatch or Skagen Falster 3.
This means there's a much greater variety of designs in the Wear OS catalog. Like the Android smartphone platform, however, the software is essentially the same from device to device.
Google/Samsung Wear OS update 2021
Wear OS is about to go through its biggest change since its launch in 2014, with Google and Samsung joining forces to make a "unified" OS. This means that Wear OS will run on future Samsung smartwatches, and some Tizen OS touches and features will enrich the experience.
What does this mean? It means the future of Wear OS is a lot rosier – with Samsung and Fitbit running Wear OS, it should attract plenty of developers to create apps for the platform.
It also announced usability, speed and battery improvements from the unified OS – and Fitbit will run the fitness tracking elements. While these aren't live yet – it's a big change. We should know more around June - July 2021.
What can a current Wear OS smartwatch do?
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Until the 2021 update is live, let's focus on the now.
Wear OS watches, like most, are much more than just second screens for your smartphone. Here's a list of a few abilities, but keep in mind that not all the features below are available on every model.
- Daily activity and workout tracking
- Heart rate data
- Google Assistant
- Google Pay
- GPS location tracking
- Google Calendars syncing
- Google Maps navigation
- Smartphone notifications and calls
- Alarm clock and stopwatch
Which Wear OS smartwatch is best?
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Below, we've summarised five of the top smartwatches running Wear OS you can buy in 2020, but head over to our complete Wear OS smartwatch buying guide for the full list.
Best Wear OS watch: Oppo Watch
Buy now: Amazon |
Launched in 2020, Oppo's debut smartwatch merges Wear OS with its own Color OS and wraps it up in a square design that will make you think of the Apple Watch.
Available in 41mm and 46mm sizes, it has all of those key Wear features like notifications, watch faces, payments and a built-in speaker and microphone.
The larger Oppo Watch gives you added LTE connectivity, a high resolution display and quicker fast charging support. If you can live without those features, the smaller option still serves as a smart-looking watch companion.
Best affordable Wear OS watch: TicWatch E2
Buy now: Amazon |
Best looking Wear OS watch: Skagen Falster 3
Buy now: Amazon |
Arguably the sleekest set of smartwatches to run Wear OS is the Skagen Falster series, which received another upgrade at the start of 2020.
Best Wear OS watch for women: Michael Kors Access Sofie HR
Buy now: Amazon |
A follow-up to the popular original, the Access Sofie HR brings a much-needed heart rate monitor, GPS and support for Google Pay.
This is still a smartwatch with design as its core focus, but you now have the option to use it as a fully-fledged exercise companion.
Best Wear OS watch for exercise: Suunto 7
Buy now: Amazon |
The sports watch maker's debut smartwatch leans on Wear OS to bring features like payments, notifications and fitness tracking. It then provides its own take on tracking outdoor activities like running and cycling with the ability to add maps to find popular routes to explore.
It comes in a range of colors, bands and has a nice big bezel to class up that look when you're not clocking up those big miles.
Wear OS tips and tricks
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Change watch face
Like the Apple Watch, Wear OS lets you set up a bunch of customised faces and then switch between them. Maybe you like a sporty face that shows your stats , but a more classic look for going out.
Pin your favorite apps
Share one number
Get on the Wi-Fi
Customise your buttons
Keyboard configuration
Use Google Assistant to control your smart home
See your Google feed
Quick Settings
Use Theater Mode
You're in a movie theater having a great time, laughing and crying and whatnot. But then you get too excited, you move your arm and your watch lights up like a Christmas tree. Shame on you – just turn on Theater Mode. To do so, swipe down to get to Quick Settings, then tap on the watch icon to deactivate your screen and keep it off. To go back to normal, press the power button on your watch.
Scribble it out
Tired of typing on a tiny watch screen? It's better to scribble things out. You'll get to use your finger to draw out letters that turn into words, and what's pretty cool is the screen will automatically scroll right to left to give you more space to scribble more letters.
In most apps, before you begin typing, you'll be presented with an input choice: do you want to use voice control or the keyboard? You can also access the handwriting option from the keyboard by tapping the globe icon.
Set up and use Google Pay
Wearable payments is one of the strongest arguments for wearable devices. It's just so much more convenient tapping your wrist to a scanner than getting out your phone or wallet. Plus, it saves the people behind you in line a lot of time.
To set up Google Pay, you'll have to download the app on your phone and set it up there first. Once you do that, head to the Google Pay app on your watch and opt to set up a new card. This'll boot you back to your phone, which will have you choose a card, agree to some terms and verify your account.
Once that's all taken care of, you can usually set up one of the side buttons on your smartwatch to be an Android Pay button (under Personalization > Customize hardware buttons in Settings). Then it's all easy peasy: tap that button, and then tap your wrist to pay.
Downloading apps to Wear OS
As is now the growing custom with smartwatches, users can download apps directly from the wrist.
That means you can browse the Google Play Store from your Wear smartwatch and begin enjoying them instantly. Of course, if you prefer, you can still download through a phone over Bluetooth, as well.
Don't forget, many apps, like Spotify and Cardiogram, are pre-installed onto most Wear watches, too. You can tackle our guide on how to download apps to Wear OS, but here's five app suggestions for you to get started with.
Don't forget, many apps, like Spotify and Cardiogram, are pre-installed onto most Wear watches, too. You can tackle our guide on how to download apps to Wear OS, but here's five app suggestions for you to get started with.
- Check out the rest in our complete list of the best Wear OS apps.
Changing watch faces on Wear OS
Once you've skipped through the tutorial, downloaded a couple of apps and got to grips with the basics of Wear OS, you'll want to customize the thing you'll be looking at most - the watch face.
Whether your preference is digital or analogue, or you want to just change up the widgets the face you've picked, doing so is simple from the watch itself.
1. On your watch, wake the screen.
2. On the home screen, touch and hold the screen for two seconds.
3. View the watch faces available on the watch by swiping from left to right.
4. Tap on the option you want as your new watch face.
Watch faces can be managed through the Wear OS app on your phone as well – tap on one of the watch faces on the front screen, or tap More to see a wider selection.
- Check out our favorite Wear OS watch faces in the complete roundup.
Wear OS for iPhone
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It's one of the most common questions we get asked: "Can Wear OS watches work with an iPhone?"
The answer is yes. While Apple doesn't let those with an Android smartphone pair with an Apple Watch, iPhone users are able to use Wear OS smartwatches.
And, for a long time, the Wear OS app for iPhone was an extremely shallow experience. However, recent improvements now mean that users can now access information tiles, notification settings, calendar syncing, Google Assistant, Google Fit and add more watch faces.
It's far from the perfect companion app, but it's certainly enough to get by.
Tracking activity on Wear OS
Wear OS is slowly becoming a better place for those who like tracking activity, especially since fourth-gen devices began packing GPS and heart rate monitors.
However, having sensors present is only half the job, with every second of logged activity only as useful as the portal used to store it in. In the case of Wear OS, that's the Google Fit app.
Available on both your phone and the smartwatch, Google Fit splits your daily activity into two key components: Move Minutes and Heart Points.
However, it's also the place that stores logged exercises, step counting history, sleep data and weight information, through a tab called the Journal.
Open up the apps list on your wrist and you'll see entries for Fit (your main dashboard), Fit Breathe (a set of breathing exercises), and Fit Workout (for tracking a specific type of activity). The basics, like step counting, are taken care of automatically.
Open up the Fit app to see your stats for today and for recent days. You'll also be able to see your current heart rate, if you're using a watch that supports the feature.
Scroll further down inside the Fit app and choose Settings to customize how the app works: You can set which activities are tracked for example, and which sensors the Google Fit app has access to.
For the most comprehensive Google Fit experience, make sure you've got the Google Fit app for Android installed as well, which is able to sync readings from your wrist.
Sleep tracking on Wear OS
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Unfortunately, sleep tracking isn't something that Google Fit supports natively – at least not yet. There have been rumors that Google will introduce it eventually, but as it stands you can't track sleep with a Wear OS watch out of the box.
What you can do is enlist the help of a third-party app. Sleep as Android, is one of the best around, offering full support for Google Fit integration and for tracking sleep through Wear OS devices or your phone – though you do need to pay a one-off fee of $9.99 to unlock the sleep tracking features.
Other than that, some watchmakers (including Fossil and Mobvoi) make their own proprietary sleep tracking apps that use the sensors in your wearable to work out how well you're sleeping. As yet though, they don't integrate with Google Fit.
Wear OS and Google Assistant
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Google has always shown more commitment to its Home platform than it has done to Wear, so it makes sense, therefore, why it sees the Google Assistant as an important addition to smartwatch experience.
With the addition of a built-in speaker in fifth-gen Wear OS devices, the Assistant has an even more integral role to play, too.
In terms of the experience from the watch, Google Assistant is both more consistent and more refined than Alexa (which features on just the Fitbit Versa 2 and 3), offering detailed read-outs and a strong integration with apps.
To access Google Assistant on your wrist, swipe right from the main watch face and tap on the microphone icon, or press and hold the power button to bring up Assistant. You can then ask a question or say whatever is on your mind.
A voice command like "turn off the study lights" would then work straight from your wrist (assuming you have some smart lights installed in a room labeled "study").
You can tell your watch to "play music" or "track my run" for example, or ask it questions to find out the time in another city or what the weather is likely to do tomorrow.
If you have Google Messages installed on your watch, you can use the Assistant to send messages (like "call Beth" or "send a text to Chris"). If Google Maps is available, you can ask for directions to a place or ask if there is traffic on your way to work.
Try experimenting with Google Assistant to see what's possible – remember that it's plugged into many other Google services and apps (including Google Calendar, so you can bring up your upcoming schedule).
For ideas on how to use Google Assistant on Wear OS, scan our guide.
Google Pay on Wear OS
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Though it was a little late to the contactless payments parade, Google Pay is supported by pretty much every Wear OS smartwatch from 2018 and later.
Add a payment card to your smartwatch
1. On your watch, open the Google Pay app.
2. Tap the 'Get Started' prompt.
3. Set up screen lock, if you haven't already.
4. On your phone, follow the instructions to add a credit or debit card. This will only add them to your watch, not your phone as well.
5. Your card will then show up on your watch.
How to make a smartwatch payment using Google Pay
1. On your watch, open the Google Pay app and select a card.
2. If asked, choose Credit, regardless of your type of card.
3. For debit card transactions, you may have to enter a PIN.
4. Hold your watch over the contactless payment terminal until you hear a sound or feel vibration from your watch.
Wear OS – how does it compare
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There's no doubt that watchOS and the Apple Watch have the edge over Wear OS at the moment – Apple's wearables support a broader range of apps, and offer more stylish and more seamless integration with the iPhone.
That said, Wear OS offers more choice: more choice in watch designs and manufacturers, more choice in watch faces (only Apple-made watch faces are available on the Apple Watch), and more customization options.
If you've got an iPhone, the Apple Watch is an obvious choice for the associated wearable; if you prefer Android smartphones, you can look at Wear OS, but also Samsung Fitbit and Amazfit's collection of smartwatches to look at too.
Wear OS offers strong integration with Android and services like Google Fit and the Google Assistant, even if third-party support isn't as good as it could be.
You could argue Samsung's Tizen OS is better than Wear OS overall, as long as you're sticking to Samsung apps. It does have built-in sleep tracking for example, which is something currently lacking in Wear OS. Amazfit and Fitbit's platform offer more reliable fitness tracking features in our experience.
It's difficult weighing up Wear OS against other smartwatch operating systems – a lot depends on which smartphone you're using, and the features you need.
Wear OS guides for beginners
Getting started with Wear OS can be tricky, and understanding the basics outlined above is essential to your experience with the smartwatch. That's why we've pulled together a collection of quick and easy how-to guides for Wear OS users.
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