Google Announces New Platform for Wearable – Android Wear

by Popa Loredana · March 19, 2014

After months of rumors, Google officially announced that its plans to extend Android to other wearable devices are as real as they can be. So, Google is working on Android Wear as a part of a special platform for wearable devices. As you are expecting, the first target group of this new Android Wear project is smartwatches, but we can already assure you that the OS will expand to even more gadgets in the near future, as the company has officially declared.

Unlike we have already seen with Pebble watch which has limited functionality, or Samsung’s Galaxy Gea, which has a limited compatibility as well, Google had decided to present us its new wearable platform ahead of actually revealing any hardware. We all know that Motorola has already announced its first Android smartwatch, the Moto 360, which the company says will launch this summer, so isn’t indeed much better to know from the start what should we be expecting to receive? Android Wear is some sort of a miniature version of the popular mobile OS that lets you to interact with your wearable via voice commands, offering you answers on-screen and as voice feedback as well. But the list of capabilities is much longer than that:

Google Announces New Platform for Wearable Devices – Android Wear

Android’s Wear Capabilities:

All you have to say is “Ok Google” to ask questions regarding your health, the score of the game and so one or for opening a menu screen called a “cue card” with a list of actions such as: “take a note,” “set an alarm,” or “call a cab”;
Android Wear comes with a variety of applications, offering you the latest updates from your favorite social apps, news, notifications from shopping, photography apps and more;
Android’s Wear helps you monitor your health and fitness activity, including details on your real-time speed, distance traveled, cycle or walk info and so on;
Android Wear lets you access and control other devices directly from your wrist. Once again you just have to say the magical words: “Ok Google” to cast your favorite movie to your TV or to see the music playlist from your phone.

All these capabilities are quite interesting on paper, we must all admit, but will they work flawless in reality? We’ll just have to wait and see that by ourselves.