Published in IoT

Android wear gets Marshmallow

by on05 February 2016


Appearing on a wrist next to you

Android wear has been going through many changes and the Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) is set to appear next.

It might take a few weeks to reach all watches, but Google has officially announced that it will roll out the update to all of them. 

The first and major update is that you can now navigate your watch with new gestures. You could scroll the content before but now you can expand a card, bring up your apps, or return home to your watch face with a push, lift or shake. The watch's wrist flick was not that precise or useful but let's hope that the new update things makes things  better.

With the Android 6.0 for wear update you can send more voice messages. You can ask your watch some questions and get limited answers now, but the new update means you can use your voice to send messages from apps like Google Hangouts, Nextplus, Telegram, Viber, WeChat, and WhatsApp.

Just say “OK Google, Send a WhatsApp message to Sergey Brin: "Get your act together, let Elon make self-driving cars and make Android updates faster for all.”

Another new update is pitched at those who have a watch with a speaker and so far that is the Huawei Watch (349 Euro) and the ASUS ZenWatch 2 (49mm) (179 Euro), The best looking watch at a reasonable price LG Urbane unfortunately doesn't have a speaker.

LGUrbane blog

You can take calls directly on the watch and  listen audio/video messages with apps like Glide. You can't take them from the more popular Skype, Facebook messenger, Viber or even What's up. We guess that this has something to do with the fact Microsoft owns and mismanages a Skype and Facebook tries doing to the same for What's up and its own messenger.

The update supports Intel and Qualcomm-based watches and some new watches like the Casio Smart Outdoor Watch and Huawei Watch for women.

If you own an Android wear supporting watch you can only wait for your device and region to update. Who knows maybe Godot, the second coming, or a usuable jet pack will show up at the same time.

Last modified on 05 February 2016
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