A new beginning for Wear OS, Google’s connected watch system. Aged by Apple’s advancement in the field, Google has teamed up with Samsung to finally try to pit it against it with products worthy of the name.

It is smart! Aware of the issues with Wear OS, Samsung abandoned it long ago for its smartwatches. He preferred to use his “home” system, Tizen, which has proven to be much better, especially in terms of autonomy and ergonomics.

Therefore, first announcement, Tizen and Wear OS will be “merged” to become a unified platform.

« By working together, we have leveraged the strengths of each system to combine them to provide better performance, better autonomy and more applications for the watch. ” Bjorn Kilburn, Android Wear product manager, wrote in a statement.

We do not know at the moment what was drawn in one or the other system. But Google announces that the app launches 30% faster and has a much smoother interface.

Above all, Kilburn specifies that the Google and Samsung teams have ” worked to optimize the lower layers of the operating system and improve autonomy. This includes some very useful optimizations, like the ability to run the heart rate sensor all day and then monitor your sleep while conserving battery power for the next day. “

Revised and corrected applications

Samsung and Google have worked hand in hand, but we want to point out that this system is open: watchmakers interested in this new platform will be able to take advantage of it and customize the interface as they wish.

Google has also announced some changes to the Wear OS interface, without giving many details. In any case, it will be faster to switch from one application to another by pressing a button twice. It will also be possible to further personalize your home screen by adding “tiles” of your favorite applications.

In addition, Google Maps, Assistant and Pay will be improved for this new platform, which will also see the arrival of YouTube Music. Therefore, it will be possible to download songs to the watch.

Finally, they are the teams of FitBit, recently acquired by Google, which will take care of the monitoring and health tools built into the operating system. All these novelties will be launched “Later this year”.