Google Wear OS 5: Features, release date and more

It’s officially launch season and that means a newly updated Wear OS. The latest platform, Wear OS 5, offers a handful of efficiency updates and other improvements to Physical Activity Tracking and more. Although there are only a few selected ones smart watches The latest version is currently available, but we’re likely to see more releases in the coming months. Find out everything you need to know.

Wear OS 5 has officially hit stores via Samsung’s latest line, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch UltraThe devices debuted during the company’s summer Unpacked event on July 10, 2024, and arrived on wrists starting July 24. Just a few weeks later, on August 13, Google announced the Pixel 3 watchgiving buyers the option of a Wear OS 5 experience without Samsung’s One UI 6 overlay.

Wear OS 5 continues to improve the smartwatch experience available on the best Android-compatible smartwatches. This year, improvements focus on battery life savings and a handful of popular features.

Much to the delight of many, Wear OS 5 introduces a grid-based app launcher to the Pixel Watch 3 to make it faster to navigate to the tools you use most. This feature wasn’t previously available in the bare-metal operating system, though some manufacturers already offered it (including Samsung). Now, all Wear OS 5 users can choose between a grid or list-based app launcher.

Wear OS 5 also brings a new and improved version of Watch Face Format to users’ wrists. The update includes the integration of Flavors, goal progress complications, weighted item complications, weather conditions, and a heart rate data feed. All of this helps improve the available watch face options and enriches personalization. Watch Face Format was originally introduced through Wear OS 4 and is now the recommended way to create watch faces for the platform.

Meanwhile, updates to health services are also coming to watches via Wear OS 5, as well as support for additional data types. Runners in particular can benefit from four new metrics: ground contact time, stride length, vertical oscillation, and vertical ratio (vertical oscillation divided by stride length). Each of these helps athletes hone their running form for more effective training. This adds up to a significant improvement in the battery efficiency of training tracking. According to Google, running a marathon while tracking on the Wear OS 5 platform consumes up to 20% less power than on Wear OS 4.

A release schedule for Wear OS 5 has yet to be announced. Sadly, smooth software implementation hasn’t been a hallmark of the Wear OS platform. For now, only the latest Galaxy Watches and the Google Pixel Watch 3 can boast of the latest tech. It’s highly likely that we’ll see the platform come to older generations within these two families first.

Meanwhile, the fate of other devices is up in the air. OnePlus recently launched two new models, the OnePlus Watch 2 and OnePlus Watch 2R, both of which run Wear OS 4 out of the box. Similarly, the TicWatch Pro 5 and Pro 5 Enduro are still running Wear OS 3.5. We’ll keep this post updated if the software makes its way to more devices.