Google isn’t giving up on Wear OS yet. Only last month, the company rolled out a big Wear OS update, literally changing the entire look of the platform. Google has now announced the “System Version: H Update” for Wear OS, with a handful of battery life focused features. The update also brings Android Pie to smartwatches. Google had announced the Android Pie Wear OS developer preview back in March.
Wear OS H update: What’s new
As per the changelog outlined by Google in their announcement, the Wear OS H update is mainly focused on to improve the battery life of Wear OS smartwatches. The changelog from Google includes:
- Battery Saver Mode Updates: This update extends your battery life even further by turning on Battery Saver to only display the time once your battery falls below 10%.
- Improved Off Body Efficiency: After 30 minutes of inactivity, your watch will go into deep sleep mode to conserve battery.
- Smart App Resume for all Apps: You can now easily pick up where you left off across all apps on your watch.
- Two Step Power Off: You can now turn off your watch in two easy steps. To turn off your watch, simply hold the power button until you see the power off screen and then select ‘power off’ or ‘restart’.
As you can see, power efficiency is the main focus of this update. An easier shutdown process and the deep sleep mode should make your watch consume less power than before. Clearly, this update would complement the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100, which itself promises some nifty battery life improvements. Smart App Resume is another intriguing feature the H update brings to Wear OS. Currently, apps in Wear OS watches don’t retain their state when you leave them and come back later. Some other changes include the introduction of new “General” and “System version” sections in the Settings.
Google says that the “update will be progressively rolling out over the coming months.” So, if your Wear OS watch hasn’t received the update yet, you may want to wait a few more days. However, neither Google nor manufacturers, have yet officially confirmed what devices are getting updated.
