Google is adding a new piece of feature to the Wear OS, once again bringing back an ounce of hope on the dying platform. The new feature makes navigation through the most-used functions of the watch much easier. Google is calling this bite-sized feature Tiles.
Tiles is pretty much the same swipe feature that Google introduced for the Google Fit, Google Assistant, notifications, and quick settings last year. Earlier, swiping down from the watch face would bring up quick settings, swiping up would bring the notifications, swiping right showed the feed from the Google Assistant and swiping left showed data from Google Fit. Now with the new addition, you can keep swiping left to access more information, like the weather forecast, news headlines, calendar events, heart rate, and more.
New update already rolling out
Tiles is a user customizable feature that adds more quick-access widgets to the left your watch face. The new widgets include Google Calendar, weather, heart rate, Google News, and timer. Google will be adding more tiles in the subsequent Wear OS updates. Dots at the top of the screen show how many Tiles you have set, with the icons appearing briefly as you navigate through them.
The Tiles come in a default order, but can be re-organized. You just need to touch and hold a given tile and then drag it to the left or right. Customization is also available from the Wear OS companion app.
Google has already started rolling out the “Tiles” update for Wear OS. The v2.24 update is being released in patches, and may take some time before it reaches every Wear OS device across the globe. Also, do note that availability of a feature may vary with regions, as well as the watch’s hardware. For instance, if your watch doesn’t have a heart rate sensor, you won’t get the heart rate Tiles.
