Google is still in the process of updating some of its smartwatches to Wear OS 2.2 H, but in a bid to stay ahead of the curve, or totally confuse us, version 2.3 of the wearable operating system is also being rolled out. Go figure!
As part of the update, the Home app has been updated from version 2.20 to 2.21, which has a number of improvements including a slight change of design, improved health coaching and what they call more “proactive” help from Google Assistant.
This seems to be a gradual roll out that is now a familiar tactic for Google. The Wear OS 2.3 update seems to have only hit a few smartwatches for now, namely the Montblanc Summit 2, Fossil Sport, and Ticwatch Sport.
Altogether there seems to be some bug fixes, the change of design, health coaching and not much else. No updates to Google Play Services or security patch updates, well, as far as we can see.
The previous update, Wear OS 2.2 H, which was announced in November last year, is still being rolled out. Even though that update is still live, now we see Wear OS 2.3 is out. Google had previously mentioned that not all Wear OS based smartwatches will get update 2.2H. Seems like they are sticking to that promise. The big headline improvements for 2.2H were the battery saver mode updates, improved off body efficiency, smart app resume for all apps, and two-step power off.
Wear OS 2.3 changes
Thanks to redditor SabashChandraBose, we have some developer notes as below for update Wear OS 2.3:
- Reduced usability in home screen.
- Fixed increased responsiveness in the previous update. Added lag when using OK, Google.
- Reduced battery usage by 10% in ambient mode. We are still optimizing the low-level code.
- Introduced per-pixel burn in for AMOLED screens (still in beta).
- Added support for 4100 chipset.
We expect quite a few more devices to begin receiving this update over the next few days.
