Android Wear After 18 months

At Y Gadget, we've been using Android wear since it's release in the UK back in July 2014. A lot has changed, a lot has stayed the same, and there is a lot more to come...

The Announcement

Although smartwatches had already been around for a little while before the announcement of Android Wear, Google had a few tricks up their sleeve to set Android Wear apart from its predecessors.

Google's signature card layout being the main focus. Taking up the bottom portion of the screen, covering part of the selected watch face, the cards would display information from Google Now and notifications from all of the apps on your phone.

The lauyout, coupled with a full colour touchscreen, helped Android Wear watches from all 3 manufacterers rise about competitors such as the Pebble smartwatch.

Unfortunately, one year after this video was released to promote Android Wear, there are still some features we have yet to see or be able to use.

Life With Android Wear

Despite that feeling of being lied to and misled on features, life with Android Wear instantly felt great. We adapted to the new lifestyle almost immediately. Within a couple of days we had already developed the habbit of saying 'OK Google' to our wrists and looking straight at the watch when we heard a notification, where previously we would have taken our phones out.

On more than one occasion we have been left red faced when wearing a standard watch to dress for an occasion and asking a question to a raised arm only to find analogue hands ticking away, clueless to what we asked. Embarrassing.

One concern we had before getting the watches was having to charge it every day. Would it last a whole day? Would we remember to charge it at night? After a couple of weeks we realised this wasn't a probelm. We easily got through an entire day despite heavy use and long, busy day. Charging it quickly became second nature.

The features we like the most and use the most often, surprisingly, are not the features that were heavily advertised. Mostly, we check spellings, set reminders, send texts, and begin calls. It is capable of so much more but this is all it needs to do. When arriving at work, feeling a vibration on your wrist, then looking at a reminder for a task you set yesterday is somthing we can no longer without. Written notes on desks just seem archaic somehow in such a short space of time.

The most annoying this about having Android on your wrist didn't come until almost 12 months after we first strapped it on when Apple eventually arrived at the Smart Watch party. When the Apple Watch was announced, with the usual excessive fanfare, months before it was launched people instantly started asking "is that an iWatch?". A classic example of branding failure and mass confusion. it's frustrating when a product doesn't get the recognition it deserves. To be confused with a product that bares no resemblance when it hasn't even reached stores is hurtful beyond expression. I felt sorry for manufaturers of Android Wear.

A worthy Successor

A lot of time has passed in the world of technology and in that time, a lot of other manufacturers have gotten on board with Android Wear. Including luxery watch makers TAG.

But is there anything worth upfgrading to?

The aforementioned smart watch by Tag, is a hard concept to get your head around. Does it offer much more than Moto's £200 360? No. So who is it made for? Millionnaires and busines executives? Somehow, I can't see Jay Z or Richard Branson getting thier watch to send a text message or asking what the weather is like. Maybe somewhere there is a young and excessive heir to a fortune who might like one of these but i can't imagine the sales figures will ever be groundbreaking. Huawei and LG both have 'luxery' Android Wear watches on the market too starting from around £100 more than the first generation Moto 360 but given that there isn't much more to it in terms of functionality it is hard to justify swapping the original Moto 360 for either of them just for the aesthetics. the same can be said for the second generation of the Moto. Our Moto 360's may have a couple of minor blemishes on the metal, the strap might be a little worn, but we still find it difficult to justify the cost fo upgrading when the watch strap could be changed if neccessary. Which, at this point, we don't think it.

For now, we are moe than happy to stay with the model we have. Let's just hold out a little longer to see what arrives.

Try Hard Software Updates

All software updates are exciting when announced. The true test of the update is it's real world use. There have been a lot of updates for Android Wear since it launched. Some of them useful. Some of them not so much. And some just bringing a fresh look.

The most recent update seems to be trying a little too hard, bringing features we have lived without until now and probably could do without in the future. Since updating a month ago, we can count on one hand the amount of time spent using the ones our watch is compatible with, and the times we wish we had our watch could handle the ones it isn't built for.

The two main feautres from the last update were; more wrist gestures, and handsfree calling for watches with a built in speaker. No early Android Wear watch has a built in speaker, meaning we aren't able to make calls through them but this is a feature we can't see us ever using even if we could. Raising your wrist to your face to talk to someone, you run the risk of opening yourself up to public ridicule. Not only that but we can't think of a situation where this would be needed. When would you be able to lift your arm, but not hold your phone? Is any call so importrant it can't wait until you pull your phone out?

As for the extra wrist gestures. This seems like overkill. At first it seems handy for if one hand isn't available to swipe through cards. But there are simply too many gestures to be able to scroll and select efficiently and remember what gesture does what action. Again, nothing is so important it can't wait until your other hand is available to swipe. Maybe amputes might find this useful but it seems like a niche market if you ask us.

The future of wearable technology will always prick our ears up but for the moment, smart watches are exactly where they need to be. More features aren't really needed and neither are new devices. We can;t imagine upgrading a watch every 12 months just yet. What feature would we like to see? Extended battery, as always. But not an extra fews hours, or even an exra day. With a 2 day battery life on my watch, we would be just as likely to charge it every night out of habit anyway. For battery life to affect how we use our watch, we would need a week at least froma single charge.

#AndroidWear #samsung #lg #moto