Google announced on Tuesday that it has created a version of Android designed for wearable devices. The new Android OS, called Android Wear, looks to make the process of creating a smartwatch or smartglasses device less of a hassle, since manufacturers won't have to start from scratch to customize an operating system for the small screen.

Google made its announcement on the official Android blog, sharing what's up "their sleeve" and teasing a few of Android Wear's features. "Most of us are rarely without our smartphones in hand," stated the Android blog. "These powerful supercomputers keep us connected to the world and the people we love. But we're only at the beginning; we've barely scratched the surface of what's possible with mobile technology," said Google, echoing sentiments similar to Sergey Brin's first introduction to Google Glass.

But with the Android Wear operating system, Google is starting with smartwatches rather than Glass. Google says it designed the wearable OS with a few important design prerogatives in mind:

1. Useful information when you need it most.

2. Straight answers to spoken questions.

3. The ability to better monitor your health and fitness.

4. Your key to a multiscreen world.

These priorities make sense, given what Google has already been developing on Android for smartphones. For example, number one basically means Android Wear will have a notification system designed to operate efficiently on a screen small enough to fit on your wrist -- including social updates, messages, news notifications, shopping, etc.

The second design aspect is the incorporation of Android and Chrome's "Okay Google" and Google Now voice search, updates and functionalities. So from a smartwatch, users should be able to ask the same kinds of questions -- ranging from nutritional information and getting flight times, to finding locations, sending texts, or setting alarms.

Google's third emphasis, on health and fitness tracking, likely evolves simply out of what wearables (and especially wrist-based wearable devices) have been most useful at. In this category, the only big step Android Wear can make beyond what currently is offered by any number of devices with custom-built operating systems is if you can record speed, distance, time, and other information without taking your smartphone along with you. But Google hasn't gone into detail yet.

The "multiscreen world" Google wants Android Wear to open up into is all about incorporating smartwatches into the ecosystem of devices Google is currently building. This includes operating key entertainment functions of your smartphone from your wrist, but also sending videos to Chromecast and controlling playback.


Google is making a developer preview available to Android app makers, and will be adding new tools and APIs soon. The Mountain View giant is already working with several manufacturers like Asus, HTC, Motorola and Samsung (perhaps Samsung making Tizen Gear 2's OS lit a fire under Google to make Android more wearable-friendly). LG has already announced the G Watch running Android Wear, and fashion watchmaker Fossil said it will announce a new product in the coming months.

Details are still sparse, but Google developing Android Wear while the smartwatch race is still in early phases might be a way to preemptively avoid operating system fragmentation, a problem that Google's Android OS faced in its early years and which would give the single-ecosystem Apple a greater advantage in launching a possible iWatch competitor. No one wants a computing device that has to be reset for each environment it connects to, but relatively tiny-screened smartwatches would be the epitome of constant-setup pain.

Related