Wear OS

Although it has been on the smartwatch market for quite a while now, Mobvoi's name really peaked last year when it launched what was then the first and only smartwatch that used Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon Wear 4100. Although it dashed hopes that the company would immediately announce Wear OS 3 upgrades for its most recent models, it still might be one of the first on that track next year. To further widen its reach, it is launching the new TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS, which, despite being a mouthful, is confusingly similar to the TicWatch Pro 3.

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Google's commitment to Wear OS has been cast into doubt because of the lack of development and improvement before Wear OS 3 was announced last month. It also seemed like Google was snubbing its own wearable platform when something as basic as a YouTube Music app was unavailable on Wear OS while ironically present on Apple's competing watchOS. That finally changed with Wear OS 3, but only for the extremely small number of smartwatches. Thankfully, that has now changed, and YouTube Music is going out to even more and older Wear OS devices.

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One of the last things you'd probably want to do on a smartwatch is read a text-heavy piece of content, whether it be a long email, a book, or a website. All those use cases, however, may happen a few times in a smartwatch user's lifetime, and it's probably reassuring to know that they can do so if they really need to. Of course, you'll need to have the right app for that, and Samsung just rolled out the smartwatch version of its rather popular Internet browser for its latest Galaxy Watch 4 series.

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There have been many smartwatches and smartwatch makers over the years, but only a few have really managed to rise above the rest. In the Wear OS market, Mobvoi is one of the more prominent brands, with its TicWatch offering a fine balance of features and battery life, the latter thanks to its dual-screen strategy. It was also one of the first and still few smartwatch makers that utilizes the latest Snapdragon Wear chipsets, and it might be cementing that position next week when it launches the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS.

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Both Samsung and Apple have released their flagship wearables for the year 2021. The big smartwatch war has thus unfolded virtually, but for everyone, this time it’s a little different tussle than in the previous years. This time smartwatches from both the tech giants are confined to their ecosystems, which means, choosing between the options would be more a decision of requirement than choice.

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For quite some time, Samsung's smartwatches were defined by a unique physical control that some regarded as more useful than the Apple Watch's digital crown. Recently, however, the Galaxy Watch's signature rotating bezel faded into the background, appearing only in some "Classic" models. For most models, Samsung opted to use a "virtual" touch bezel that relied on touch-sensitive areas around the edge of the screen. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Watch 4's implementation was apparently buggy, but, fortunately, Samsung just pushed a fix in time for the arrival of a new app that could utilize this feature.

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The launch of the Galaxy Watch 4 also brought with it a new Exynos chip designed for wearable devices. Built on a 5nm process, the Exynos W920 promises to be the most powerful and most energy-efficient platform for smartwatches today, though it is only available for Samsung smartwatches anyway. Qualcomm is expected to fire back soon with a Snapdragon Wear 5100, but, based on new yet unofficial information, it could end up being a bit of a dud in at least one aspect.

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There has been renewed vigor in the Wear OS ecosystem party thanks to the announcement of the big Wear OS upgrade soon and partly due to the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, the first and so far only to use Wear OS 3. That excitement, however, was quickly doused by the cold reality that not all smartwatches will be updated to Wear OS 3, though, to some extent, that wasn't totally unexpected, even if completely disappointing. What is unexpected and puzzling, however, is the software support between Wear OS versions, as exemplified not just by Google but also by Strava.

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Smartwatches have been around for years now, and Apple has managed to keep its spot at the top despite the number of Android Wear, now Wear OS, devices in the market. In terms of platform features, the Apple Watch is arguably ahead of the race, but Wear OS isn't that far behind. Samsung's new Galaxy Watch 4 series seems to push Google's wearable platform to new heights, and it is getting a long-delayed feature that, somewhat ironically, still leaves Wear OS one step behind.

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Fossil this morning announced its next-generation smartwatch, simply called the Gen 6 Touchscreen Smartwatch. While Fossil's latest smartwatch may have a rather basic name, it seems to offer most of the features we expect from smartwatches these days. Moreover, the Fossil Gen 6 Smartwatch comes with the promise that it will be upgraded to Wear OS 3 at some point next year.

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The irony hasn't escaped most people's attention that Google's wearable platform doesn't have an app for Google's music streaming service. Adding insult to injury, Google did launch a YouTube Music app for smartwatches but only for Apple's smartwatches. At long last, a Wear OS version of that app has finally been announced and has started rolling out, but it still won't placate Wear OS owners because it will only serve the few dozen new owners of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 series.

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Google seemed to be all in on the upcoming Wear OS 3, but it threw existing Wear OS users a bone a few weeks ago. Some features that are headed for the next version of the wearable platform will also find their way to existing smartwatches. Fortunately, some app developers aren't limiting their new features to Wear OS 3 either, and Spotify has announced much-needed offline listening support that's heading to all Wear OS users. That update is finally making its way to smartwatches, but a few users seem to be unsatisfied with some aspects.

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