Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Google’s yearly I/O developer conference is next week and ahead of its I/O developer conference, Google’s updated Wear OS with what it calls “Tiles” — new widget-sized apps designed to help you quickly do more right from your wrist. This feature may seem familiar if you’ve ever used a Samsung Galaxy Watch.

In a blog post, Google announced today that it is adding a new feature called Tile to its Wear OS ahead of its I/O event next week. It works by adding swipeable shortcuts to popular apps on your Android-friendly smartwatch. To access them, you just have to swipe left from the main screen. Even though it is got a different name, it is basically the exact same thing as the widgets you already get on Samsung’s Tizen operating system on its Galaxy Watches. Functionally, is also similar to the complications you will find on various Apple Watch clock faces.

“With a swipe left, you’ll be greeted by these Tiles and can check your progress towards your fitness goals or start a workout, know where you need to be next, plan ahead with the latest forecast, check your heart rate, follow the latest breaking headlines and set a timer,” Wear OS product manager Frank Deschenes wrote in a blog post.

Google has been working to improve the Wear OS experience over the last several months. Last fall, the company rolled out a major upgrade and put Google Assistant and Google Fit front and center. When swiped to the right, this would pull up Google Assistant’s proactive view, with your most important notifications and calendar events up top. Similarly, a swipe to the left showed your progress towards filling the octagonal rings that represent Google Fit’s Move Minutes and Heart Points, measurements of daily fitness progress.

Tiles will roll out to Wear OS over the next month.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *