Asteroid, a Linux-based open-source wearable OS, and a potential replacement for Google’s Wear OS, has reached a big milestone. AsteroidOS v1.0, the first stable build, has now been officially released. The OS is built by a French computer scientist and Linux developer Florent Revest – as a hobby.
AsteroidOS – a potential replacement for Wear OS
Florent Revest began the work on AsteroidOS as a hobby some four years ago. The OS, which is based entirely on Linux libraries and technologies, first appeared in Alpha back in 2016. It looked looked slick and mature in its early incarnation itself. However, significant progress has been made in less than 18 months, and the OS is now ready to replace Wear OS on select smartwatches.
AsteroidOS 1.0 allows users access to notifications, alarm clock, stopwatch, and calculator. The OS also allows remote control of music app, weather updates, and a selection of watch faces. No other third-party apps are supported currently, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone either. It’s also said to offer around the same standby times as Wear OS watches — up to 48 hours.
The first stable release of AsteroidOS works on Asus ZenWatch, ZenWatch 2 and ZenWatch 3, the LG G Watch, LG Watch Urbane, LG G Watch R, and the Sony Smartwatch 3. All of these watches run on Wear OS (previously Android Wear) and, of course, some of these never got the big Android Wear 2.0 update last February.
AsteroiOS 1.0 release video
What comes next?
Nothing much is available yet, but a blog post by the company hints at features like an always-on display, grouped notifications, and calendar synchronisation. The software is also capable of hosting other programmes, like Docker or Quake, on the watch. So the possible future features are endless.
Asteroid is, of course, not the first Linux to go on the wrist. Samsung‘s Tizen is also a Linux-based open-source OS, which the company has been using on its Gear series of watches and many other things.
The OS itself clearly isn’t ready to go head-to-head with Wear OS or Tizen either, but it’d be interesting to see how things pan out. If you are interested in trying out the OS in your watch, the process is documented by the company here. It is, however, currently compatible with Android phones only, meaning iOS users can’t test AsteroidOS yet. An SDK has also been made available for developers to get involved. So hopefully, we’ll see more watch faces and apps land on the platform in the future.
Find out more about AsteroidOS at AsteroidOS.org and tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
