- Back in April, we made a video about
how there just aren't very many good
smartwatches for Android users.
But since then, a whole lot has happened.
There's a new chip coming out for Wear OS smartwatches,
and there's a new version of Wear OS, it's 2.0
and it's coming out to smartwatches right now
and it has a whole new interface,
but oh wait, now it says it's Wear OS 2.1,
they keep changing it on me.
I dunno, whatever, the important thing is
it's the new version of Wear OS.
Here's a question, has anything really changed?
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Wear OS, as you know, works with both
iPhones and Android phones.
The truth is, if you have an iPhone
and you want a smartwatch, your best option,
it really is the new Apple Watch.
It's really great.
But if you have an Android phone,
I still think you're basically looking at
those same three options I talked about in the last video.
And just to review, that is a Wear OS smartwatch,
it is a third-party smartwatch with a screen
or a hybrid smartwatch, which doesn't have a screen.
I think right now the best third-party smartwatch
is the Galaxy Watch, which is nice,
but I kind of don't like it
if you're not using a Samsung phone,
'cause there's a bunch of extra software
and the hybrid smartwatches, they're fine,
they're still doing their thing.
But the real question is, what's going on now with Wear OS?
And actually, there's quite a lot.
Qualcomm has announced a new processor for Wear OS,
it's called the Snapdragon 3100,
and before you get too excited about it,
the main thing that you should know about it
is that it has a little co-processor
that runs the thing in ambient mode
and also it can detect all the sensors.
And it allows it to run in low power
for a longer time, but the main processor isn't any faster.
So it still feels basically the same when you use it.
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That's not necessarily a problem,
assuming that Wear OS has been updated
to work better on like the existing chips.
So I've been using Wear OS for the last week or so
and you know what?
It's been updated to work better.
But the other thing about this new processor
is we haven't seen any watches using it yet.
That may seem confusing, 'cause you may have seen
that a bunch of smartwatches just got announced
at that tech show in Berlin called IFA.
But you should know that all those watches
still have the old processor.
And here's one of them right here.
It's the Fossil Q Explorist HR Gen 4.
And the HR stands for heart rate
'cause it can read your heart rate now.
They cost 255 bucks, the other new thing
that it has is NFC, so you can use it with Google Pay.
And you know, honestly, it's pretty nice.
It's got a really big screen,
it's you know, kinda thick, but it's not too thick.
I think it looks pretty good, and I do kinda like it.
But I dunno if I like it to the tune of 255 dollars
for a smartwatch with an old processor
kinda like it, you know what I mean?
Also, honestly, the battery life it's not that great.
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At a high level, the biggest change is that
Google seems to have figured out what a smartwatch is for.
Finally, or maybe again, I dunno.
Google seems to have a really clear idea.
If you take a look at what's happening here,
you begin to see something really important.
So, let's look at the new gestures on Wear OS.
So when you swipe down from the top,
you get a new quick setting screen
and it's just a lot more coherent that before.
There's a whole lot of new buttons here,
there's a Google Pay button, so if you have NFC
you can just turn on Google Pay really quickly.
There's a button to find your phone right away.
Do not disturb, airplane mode,
it's a much nicer quick settings interface.
Now if you swipe up, you get the new notifications interface
and it is way better than the last version of Wear OS.
Because everything is on a single scrollable sheet,
you can still expand them, you can still see stuff grouped,
and you can wipe stuff away that gets smeared on your phone.
Good job! Way better.
Thank you for making it the way it was.
Now from the home screen, if you swipe right,
if you swipe right? Yes.
Well, if you swipe left to go to the right.
Swiping is hard, I'd be really bad at Tinder by the way,
it's a good thing I'm old.
Anyway, you get to the new version of Google Fit,
which just got updated, it's got two new scores,
and Google really simplified it
and made it easier to understand,
so good job there Google.
And then when you swipe right,
you get to the left hand screen,
which is the Google Feed.
This is the place where you can see, you know,
ambient information, you're gonna get the weather,
you're gonna get what Google thinks is, you know,
the next thing in your calendar or whatever.
This where they can be a little more experimental.
Put it all together,
look at all the stuff in the new gestures,
what do you really see?
Well, here's what I see.
Number one, I see an operating system
that is maybe slightly faster
and a little bit more responsive than it was before.
Now this could just be new watch syndrome,
every time you get a new gadget you just think it's faster,
but I dunno, honestly, I do think Google
has optimized things just a little bit.
Number two, finally, we see a coherent focus
on the two things that people most want out of a smartwatch,
fitness and notifications.
Both of those things are way better now
and they're easy to get to from the home screen.
Or the watch face, anyway,
the features are more purposeful now
and they're also more useful, especially Google Fit.
Now, Google isn't trying to compete at every level
with the Apple Watch, Google Fit is maybe just a little bit
more basic than the health stuff on the Apple Watch.
But, you know what, it works
and I do think it's enough for a lot of people.
And then, the third thing that we see here
and this might be the most important one,
there is room to grow.
And especially in the Google Feed.
Is it great yet? No.
Maybe it will be someday, that's always how we feel
about the Google feed, but it is a place
where Google can experiment with new features
and ideas without mucking around
with the core functions of the smartwatch.
Add those three things up
and I what I think we're really looking at here is a reset.
Wear OS is now simpler, and it's easier to understand
and that's more than I've been able to say about it
for kind of a long time.
So, I wanna go back to that very, very first question.
Has anything changed?
Well, you know what, let's look at what I said
in the last video and see if it still holds up now.
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When you use an Android phone
and you wanna wear a smartwatch,
your choices are actually kind of grim.
Yeah, you know what, grim is mean, but it's not wrong.
The problem with Wear OS is Google hasn't done
right by its users with this platform.
The new update actually shows Google listening
to its user and I'm really happy about it.
The third-party apps are a like not that great,
if you can find them at all,
and digging through the piles and piles
of watch faces to find the one good one
that you like just takes forever.
Google recently put like this quality
filter on the app store for Wear OS
so that really low quality junky stuff will go away.
So hopefully that will make it
easier to find the good watch faces
and what few good apps there actually are.
I kinda wanna go back to Wear OS,
which seems like a really bad choice.
Yeah, I actually kind of like it,
especially with this new interface.
It's great as long as, you know,
you don't need to have your watch work after 10:00 p.m.
because the battery dies.
(claps)
Even though it might be the right choice for me,
I don't think I can recommend
a Wear OS watch to really anybody else.
Still true, but that might not be the case forever.
And let me explain why.
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Wear OS is in a much better place
now than it was six months ago
and that comes down to Google solving
the same problem that Apple solved with its watch.
Knowing what a smartwatch is for.
Time, fitness, notifications.
Everything else is stuff you build
on top of that foundation.
And foundations should be simple and sturdy.
And Wear OS? It finally is.
But, that doesn't mean that now is a great time
to buy a Wear OS smartwatch, sorry.
It's worth waiting to see what these new
Qualcomm processors do on new smartwatches
and whether it makes a big difference.
And honestly, it's worth waiting to see,
software-wise what Google can build
on top of this new foundation.
Hey everybody, thank you so much for watching.
You know, we made this video
because so many of you were asking for an update
to our last smartwatch video, and I dunno if you
like this kind of video let me know in the comments.
Maybe we'll do it again sometime.
Lastly, have you ever listened to our podcast?
The Vergecast, I co-host it
with Nilay Patel and Paul Miller.
It's fun, you should give it a listen.