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In what is probably the biggest shakeup for Wear OS since Google officially announced Wear OS, today at Google I/O 2021 the company announced that it will be transitioning Wear OS into a unified platform.
Google will be merging Wear OS with Samsung’s Tizen smartwatch operating system to create a unified platform. The end goal – to improve Wear OS tenfold. And with the benefits this unified platform promises to introduce, an improvement is probably an understatement.
This falls in line with past rumors that Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Watch 4 would run on Wear OS. And although Google itself didn’t announce this at Google I/O, Samsung did officially confirm the Galaxy Watch 4 will run on this new version of Wear OS.
The Wear OS unified platform will boost battery life and other user pain points
Google’s two main issues when it comes to Wear OS are battery life, and performance. Perhaps the two biggest things that need to be on point. While Wear OS didn’t exactly shrivel up and die after years of not hitting these marks, it’s not exactly flourishing either.
Users unanimously abhor both of these areas. This is where Samsung comes in. While Samsung’s very first smartwatch ever ran on Android Wear, every watch after that has been powered by Tizen.
And for the better. Samsung’s smartwatches, especially its most recent ones from the last few years, have great battery life and performance. Now that Google is unifying things with Samsung’s Tizen platform, Wear OS should end up with (hopefully much) better battery life. Which typically lasts barely a day in the platform’s current state.
Performance, too, is likely to see a nice boost. As Wear OS now can often feel sluggish and unresponsive when compared to some other options.
Apps will load 30% faster than before
When Google says a boost to performance, it seems to mean it. After the unification takes place, Google is promising that apps will load 30% faster than before. Which sounds like it will be a pretty noticeable uptick in loading times.
That means you’ll be able to get to anything on the watch quicker and more seamlessly than ever before. Something which Wear OS has sorely needed. Animations will be a lot smoother too. So overall the user experience is going to improve quite a bit.
As noted above the Galaxy Watch 4 will run on this new unified platform. As will future Fitbit devices and future Wear OS devices from other manufacturers.