Wear OS feels like it’s on a knifes edge of possibility, fall one way and it will fade into obscurity, fall the other and it just might end up as the platform it promises it could be. Things might be edging slightly the second way with the latest developer update to the platform now allowing 3rd parties to develop Tiles.
FOr those not familiar with Wear OS Tiles referees to a series of interactable widgets or dashboards that you can swipe quickly through to get actionable information or simple controls. These can range from simple weather all the way up to complex app interactions, there is;t however Google Assistant Routine shortcuts available, which is a huge fail in our book.
With a Jetpack library now available in alpha this hints at a future where Google will announce another refresh to the ecosystem and bring more options to 3rd party apps. With Google having acquired some mystery technology from Fossil and more recently purchased FitBit, all of the pieces are there for a potential great ecosystem.
With the Snapdragon 4100 and 4100+ platforms now in a commercial release, it looks like the major hardware stumbling block for Wear OS is finally gone. Now it’s just time for Google to show some leadership and invest in Wear OS, or do what they do best and kill it off, one way or another at least we’d have a direction going forward.
Why paint an old coffin