Google’s smartwatch platform, Wear OS, has not received much love from the companybut frankly, the neglect is starting to get ridiculous. According to 9 to 5Google, Wear OS watch owners are now finding it difficult to install certain apps after the company told developers it was doing away with the old app installation method.
On the backside a little higher, in 2017 Google changed the way Wear OS users (then Android Wear 2.0) downloaded third-party apps on their smartwatches. Previously, smartwatch apps were bundled with phone versions. But Then Google introduced an independent app store on the wrist. The move was intended to make Wear OS watches less dependent on the functioning of phones, but the old method was still an option, so if you wanted, you could find out what apps were installed on your Wear OS watch through the Apps on your phone section of the Play Store.
Last month, however, Google apparently sent an email to developers stating that this would be a legacy embedded model kaput from March 10In his e-mail, Google said it did away with the embedded legacy app model because it excessively bloated the APK for non-smartwatch users. It also revealed that apps using this method would disappear from it Apps on your phone section and would also be undiscovered in the Play Store on the wrist. Developers were also encouraged to migrate to the newer multi-APK model so that their apps would be discoverable and reduce bloat on phone apps.
A stand-alone app store on the wrist isn’t a bad thing. (Hell, Apple has only embraced one with the Series 5However, if you’ve ever used Wear OS, look for apps that you absolutely know exists does not always work the way you want. For example, I tried to search for well-known apps like Uber and Google Maps in the Wear OS Play Store, only to be foiled by the interface. Typing on a small screen is never fun, and depending on what processor your Wear OS watch has, the whole thing can be annoyingly slow. It’s not terrible if you only download one or two apps. However, if you’re setting up a new smartwatch, it is a lot of easier to jump off apps you already use on your phone that also work on your watch. Forcing Wear OS users – especially those who have long been loyal to the platform – to download everything individually from the wrist is stupid. Forcing new Wear OS users to do this will make people hate the platform or underuse one of the more robust third-party smartwatch app stores.
Besides the inconvenience, the other issue is that if you buy a new phone and pair your existing Wear OS watch again, the Apps on Your Psharpen option also goes at night poof. If the apps you rely on haven’t updated to the new way of working – and let’s face it, some developers aren’t eager to prioritize Wear OS apps – then you could be in a tough fight. In at least one case, a diabetic user went to the Wear OS subreddit to note that after upgrading to a Pixel 5, they could no longer use the companion app for their Dexcom G6 glucose monitor. The app was on their phone but now there was no way to install it on their watch after re-pairing required a factory update. There are certainly solutions, but the average person has no time for this nonsense.
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This particular example is not great. Dexcom certainly deserves some warmth for letting Wear OS users down. Google did email developers this change was underway and it is up to them to keep their apps up to date. However, it is also on Google to invest in this platform to make it worthwhile.
Google is at the forefront of this. If you’re an app developer, what does it look like when Google prioritizes one YouTube Music app for the Apple Watch about its own platform? Should you feel incentivized to roll out new versions when Wear OS barely gets any updates? What about the fact that Google is aware of the “Hey Google ”has been trigger keyword for Assistant on Wear OS broken for months
One of the biggest reasons for an Android user to choose Wear OS over Samsung’s Tizen (though soon maybe you don’t have that option) is a more robust app store, Google Assistant and Google Pay. Two of the three of these reasons are now marked with asterisks. Users don’t have to rely on workarounds or even factory reset their Wear OS watches when they upgrade to a new phone. Google had the option here to think of another way to train users and developers of what was to come.
While Wear OS is the butt of the joke in the smartwatch world, we’d all do better, it thrivedBut does Google want that after months of stories like this?