Google Pixel Watch to receive Material You design overhaul with Wear OS update

The Pixel Watch could also be comparatively new, however the OS underpinning it’s practically 30 months previous. Currently, Google’s first smartwatch ships with Wear OS 3.5, a model of Android 11 that utilises personalised tiles and watch faces with no shared theming system. However, the following main Wear OS update might see the smartwatch undertake Google’s Material You design language, primarily based on 9to5Google’s findings inside Android 14 Developer Preview 1 (DP1). 

Supposedly, Android 14 DP1 contains references to settings referred to as ‘DYNAMIC_COLOR_THEME_ENABLED’, a function that’s lacking from Android 11’s and Wear OS 3.5’s codebase. At this stage, it stays to be seen whether or not Wear OS will modify colors primarily based on these chosen for an lively watch face or if it will likely be doable to choose a system-wide accent color. Still, plainly not less than some type of dynamic color themes are headed to Wear OS.

Alternatively, Google might synchronise a paired smartphone’s accent color with the one on a Wear OS smartwatch. The subsequent model of Wear OS is probably going to keep a black-heavy UI although, contemplating the proliferation of AMOLED shows and small batteries in smartwatches just like the Galaxy Watch 5 and the Pixel Watch.

Separately, it’s unclear which model of Android Google will improve Wear OS to, whether or not that be Android 12, Android 13 or Android 14. With Android 14 seemingly one other iteration of Android 12, it might be less complicated for Google to carry Wear OS to parity with Android than in years passed by. Typically, Google previews new variations of Android at its annual I/O conferences, because it did with Wear OS 3 in 2021. Hence, we could also be however just a few months away from the debut of Wear OS 4.0.  

Alex Alderson – Senior Tech Writer – 7352 articles printed on Notebookcheck since 2018

Prior to writing and translating for Notebookcheck, I labored for numerous corporations together with Apple and Neowin. I’ve a BA in International History and Politics from the University of Leeds, which I’ve since transformed to a Law Degree. Happy to chat on Twitter or Notebookchat.