Google Officially Announces Plans for their Smartwatch Product Line

Reportedly, Google has announced that they are getting into the smartwatch arena as a part of Android wear, a wearable version of its mobile operating system. The search giant is planning to effectively extend its mobile OS to a new category of devices through Android wear. Simultaneously, they are also trying to keep the costs low for developers.

Possibilities

The exact specifications of the Android wear’s user interface are still not clear but a crude picture based on the developer’s site and design guidelines is discussed below. Apart from adding just phone type voice features in the watch, Android wear will also lay emphasis on contextual characteristics such as notifications and quick responses from messaging apps and social media. The core motive of the gadget is to display vast and necessary information, while keeping the UI interaction to minimum. Therefore, essentially a user would definitely take out their smartphone to write an email and read through spreadsheets but, he/she will always have an option of checking a to-do list or view directions via the smartwatch. Another remarkable feature that is enabled in the smartwatch is the famous “OK Google”. Users can trigger a voice search via this feature to get relevant results. “Google Now” is Google’s virtual assistant software and it will play a significant role for the smartwatch in fetching data on weather, flight times, reservations etc. It is quite evident that third party apps and notifications will be important as well, which is why they are probably announcing it right now. Google is apparently counting on Android developers for user-friendly apps which will act as an advantage against Samsung’s Tizen based smartwatches, where developer support is built from the scratch. Incoming messages that are displayed are cropped to fit the screen but users can always tap on it to view the whole text in bigger fonts. Multiple messages from the same sender will be in one folder and will appear like a vertical stack of playing cards, and users can swipe through them to the folder of their choice. Users can swipe to the right to carry out an action on a notification or a message. E.g. – A notification from the calendar app can show reminders or meeting notes with one swipe.

Hardware

Google is tightly working with renowned device manufacturers such as LG, Motorola, Samsung, Asus and HTC and chip manufacturers like Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Imagination and Mediatek. They are also in talks with traditional watch maker, Fossil. Sources say that LG and Motorola are on the verge of releasing their smartwatches in the market, i.e. by second and third quarter of this year. LG has already declared that their ‘G watch’ will be compatible with a wide variety of Android devices while Motorola has not promised anything with its Moto 360 as of now. While these technological marvels are on its way to the market, critics are still valid in their skepticism about the battery life of such devices. Let us wait and watch!