Wear OS Update Brings New Google Assistant Features to Smartwatches

By Tasneem Akolawala | Updated: 4 May 2018 11:03 IST

Highlights

Wear OS users get smart suggestions feature
Google Assistant's Actions feature will also be introduced
Android Wear was rebranded to Wear OS in March this year

Wear OS Update Brings New Google Assistant Features to Smartwatches

Just ahead of I/O next week, Google is rolling out a new Google Assistant-centric update for its Wear OS users bringing new features like smart suggestions and the popular Actions on Google feature for smartwatches. It also brings the ability to hear your Google Assistant answers on the watch instead of just reading them on the small dial of your screen. The tech giant says that these updates will be rolled out to all Wear OS users in the next few days.

With this update, Google Assistant gets cleverer with smart suggestions now throwing follow up searches based on your queries. For example, when you ask about the weather, you can see the weather now and then tap on a suggestion to see the extended forecast for the weekend.

As we mentioned, Google is bringing Actions on Google for Wear OS users as well, which means you can give commands to your smart products through the Google Assistant on your smartwatch, and do many other tasks as well. You can ask your smart AC to be switched on, your oven to start heating up, or ask a third-party app like Bay Trains for when the next train is leaving.

Google introduced third-party integration on Google Assistant in October 2016, and recently announced that it had reached 1 million Actions in Assistant. It has called out for developers to keep adding more. Lastly, with this update, you'll now be able to hear your Google Assistant query instead of just reading it on the small screen.

In March, Google rebranded Android Wear to Wear OS by Google, and rolled out a list of smartwatches that are eligible for the update. You can see the full list here. A new name suggests Google is finally paying attention to its wearable platform. When Google had announced Android Wear, it worked on Android smartwatches paired with Android smartphones only. However, Google added iPhone compatibility later making the name"Android Wear" somewhat misleading. Wear OS seems to be a more neutral term.

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