Will Google give up on Wear OS next?

[nickdalzell1]

Many of the 'older' folks I see wearing an watch don't even know it can make payments via Apple Pay, most don't even know it can receive notifications. They just bought it because  logo and it tells time and looks nice. Sadly, this is the market around here. Unless you're under 20 most have no clue it can do what it does right now.

There's a reason Wear OS has stuck to round. Samsung. Definitely Samsung. So far they'r #1 on Android phones in sales and also #1 on non-Apple Watches. They think round is working so they don't change. Many consider square faces so 2012.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Many of the 'older' folks I see wearing an watch don't even know it can make payments via Apple Pay, most don't even know it can receive notifications. They just bought it because  logo and it tells time and looks nice. Sadly, this is the market around here. Unless you're under 20 most have no clue it can do what it does right now.

There's a reason Wear OS has stuck to round. Samsung. Definitely Samsung. So far they'r #1 on Android phones in sales and also #1 on non-Apple Watches. They think round is working so they don't change. Many consider square faces so 2012.

It’s interesting because the first galaxy gear watches which came out long before the first Apple Watch were square. I think it was that Motorola wear OS watch (Moto 360) that started the circular watch craze on android. Even the first wear OS watches (Samsung, LG) were square.

 

[Oohara]

It’s interesting because the first galaxy gear watches which came out long before the first Apple Watch were square. I think it was that Motorola wear OS watch (Moto 360) that started the circular watch craze on android. Even the first wear OS watches (Samsung, LG) were square.

Yeah I think so too. The Moto 360 became quite iconic I think, I remember seeing that chrome coloured puck everywhere I turned for a year or too and that has probably left its trace on the design paradigm for
smartwatches on team Android.

What I really dislike about round watches is that they have that kind of "skeumorphic" feel to them, that they're trying to look like traditional watches. But I don't want a traditional watch, that's why I'm looking at smartwatches!! What gets me going about smartwatch design is that I can have a cool squareish futuristic tech tool on my wrist. Pretty much every single round design so far I've seen for smartwatches has looked more or less completely boring to me.

In fact Apple found a quite elegant solution with theirs, as it kind of mixes square and round. I wouldn't mind a really sharp edged, full on sci-fi design though. As I said before, give me a smartwatch like that, and I might be very tempted to take a step out of Apple land, even if I don't get the fancy heart monitor and all that jazz.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Yeah the first three Samsung watches were indeed square and didn't sell that good. The gear series didn't even take off until the Samsung Gear S2 came out, which started the round revolution.

Motorola had the first WearOS round watch and it wasn't a big seller or very reliable either. They tried again with the 360 2 but the only WearOS roundies selling lately are Fossil and Marshall.

The best example of my 'folks who have an Apple Watch don't know it can do anything more than tell time' was at the flying club meeting in my area I attended last. Two women had just got a new Series 5 for Christmas, and they just used them to tell the time. I started showing them the walkie talkie feature, and that New Years animation (it was Jan 1) and it totally blew their minds and they wanted to know more it could do. Until I showed them, they just figured they were fancy looking watches.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Yeah the first three Samsung watches were indeed square and didn't sell that good. The gear series didn't even take off until the Samsung Gear S2 came out, which started the round revolution.

Motorola had the first WearOS round watch and it wasn't a big seller or very reliable either. They tried again with the 360 2 but the only WearOS roundies selling lately are Fossil and Marshall.

The best example of my 'folks who have an Apple Watch don't know it can do anything more than tell time' was at the flying club meeting in my area I attended last. Two women had just got a new Series 5 for Christmas, and they just used them to tell the time. I started showing them the walkie talkie feature, and that New Years animation (it was Jan 1) and it totally blew their minds and they wanted to know more it could do. Until I showed them, they just figured they were fancy looking watches.

One of my colleagues has a series 3 Apple Watch and he didn’t know he could answer calls from the watch. I had to show him how. He had been using it for Apple Pay though, so I guess there are different levels of not knowing all the watch can do.

 

[Fguerouate]

Oh, it's pretty dead. Even Samsung has quite a climb to catch what is happening on Apple Watch.

I can't figure it out honestly. It seems like there is just a ton of disinterest in the watch.

Wear os is honestly ****. It feels way too cluttered and over complex and slow compared to watch os. The latter is simple, efficient, and fluid, just like a smartwatch operating system should be.

 

[drinkingtea]

One of my colleagues has a series 3 Apple Watch and he didn’t know he could answer calls from the watch. I had to show him how. He had been using it for Apple Pay though, so I guess there are different levels of not knowing all the watch can do.

I don’t understand spending all that money on an expensive watch without doing research first. Being clueless about one of the most basic aspects of the Watch... ?‍♀️.

(If the Watch was a gift, I can kind of understand the ignorance—kind of.)

 

[nickdalzell1]

People spend money on Rolex watches that only do one thing, tell the time. I don't see how it is that much a stretch to buy an Apple Watch because it's shiny, bears the Apple logo, and tells the time well.

Whenever I was using my Galaxy Watch, I had blown the minds of many a gas station attendent that didn't know they supported NFC, and got asked to leave a Lowe's once because they thought I was 'hacking their terminals'.

NFC/Tap to pay/Apple Pay is still new to folks where I live. It's becoming ubiquitous in stores, but managers and customers are still quite technophobic.

Mom had a BlackBerry Torch and she didn't know it had a slider keyboard. She'd been using that terrible touch screen the whole time! She also had an iPhone 6s and didn't even know about 3D touch. She's got an 11 Pro and I had to help her with the gesture controls.

Age is the common factor here. The older the person, the least they'll take full advantage of anything. My dad had an OG iPhone and all he used it for was calls and Wifi + Safari. He never got into texting or apps. He was given the iPhone from a friend when AT&T killed the GPRS network and essentially bricked his Moto Razr V3. The iPhone was on T-Mobile at the time.

As for Android Wear/Wear OS, it's probably next on the Killed by Google chopping block. It's had a name change and is still half-baked and unsupported/dead. Great face selection though. But that's it. A lot of base features that were part of 1.x before the 2.x redesign got broken in the redesign. They also removed certain useful features such as wrist gestures and the Google Now cards. Now it's just an inconsistent notification platform with a few apps and tons of third party faces.

One reason I stopped using Google apps (besides privacy concerns) is because they got a short UI attention span problem. They keep changing things and rearranging stuff and I hate that. Pick one UI design and improve it over time, but stop with the constantly redefining Material Design thing.

 

[drinkingtea]

People spend money on Rolex watches that only do one thing, tell the time. I don't see how it is that much a stretch to buy an Apple Watch because it's shiny, bears the Apple logo, and tells the time well.

Whenever I was using my Galaxy Watch, I had blown the minds of many a gas station attendent that didn't know they supported NFC, and got asked to leave a Lowe's once because they thought I was 'hacking their terminals'.

NFC/Tap to pay/Apple Pay is still new to folks where I live. It's becoming ubiquitous in stores, but managers and customers are still quite technophobic.

Mom had a BlackBerry Torch and she didn't know it had a slider keyboard. She'd been using that terrible touch screen the whole time! She also had an iPhone 6s and didn't even know about 3D touch. She's got an 11 Pro and I had to help her with the gesture controls.

Age is the common factor here. The older the person, the least they'll take full advantage of anything. My dad had an OG iPhone and all he used it for was calls and Wifi + Safari. He never got into texting or apps. He was given the iPhone from a friend when AT&T killed the GPRS network and essentially bricked his Moto Razr V3. The iPhone was on T-Mobile at the time.

As for Android Wear/Wear OS, it's probably next on the Killed by Google chopping block. It's had a name change and is still half-baked and unsupported/dead. Great face selection though. But that's it. A lot of base features that were part of 1.x before the 2.x redesign got broken in the redesign. They also removed certain useful features such as wrist gestures and the Google Now cards. Now it's just an inconsistent notification platform with a few apps and tons of third party faces.

One reason I stopped using Google apps (besides privacy concerns) is because they got a short UI attention span problem. They keep changing things and rearranging stuff and I hate that. Pick one UI design and improve it over time, but stop with the constantly redefining Material Design thing.

Funny thing is, Google doesn’t even follow its own design language. Some apps have a transparent navigation bar; some don’t. Some have a background behind the status bar; some don’t. Some have dark mode; some don’t. A complete mess. That would have driven me crazy if I decided to switch to the Pixel 4. I don’t know how such inconsistencies don’t bother most Android users. Maybe it’s just my OCD. ?‍♀️?

And, yes. Age plays an important role in such ignorance, but such ignorance is still shocking and perplexing to me.

I can’t see Wear OS being successful. I think it’ll go the way of Android tablets. The Apple Watch is just too good. There are many Android users who switch to iOS purely for the Watch. If Google is at all serious about being competitive with the Watch, I think it’ll take them years to get there nonetheless.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Maybe Google is realizing that most folks have their watch and phone at the same place at the same time and, since there are not ads on the Watch, the potential to make money from it is not worth the effort?

 

[Klyster]

I used to have a square Samsung watch, I much prefer a round watch, I "don't" have issue reading text on my S3 frontier.
I might be in the minority but I won't buy another square watch, they are ugly imo, complications look messy on a square.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Funny thing is, Google doesn’t even follow its own design language. Some apps have a transparent navigation bar; some don’t. Some have a background behind the status bar; some don’t. Some have dark mode; some don’t. A complete mess. That would have driven me crazy if I decided to switch to the Pixel 4. I don’t know how such inconsistencies don’t bother most Android users. Maybe it’s just my OCD. 🤷‍♀️😝

And, yes. Age plays an important role in such ignorance, but such ignorance is still shocking and perplexing to me.

I can’t see Wear OS being successful. I think it’ll go the way of Android tablets. The Apple Watch is just too good. There are many Android users who switch to iOS purely for the Watch. If Google is at all serious about being competitive with the Watch, I think it’ll take them years to get there nonetheless.

Maybe they are planing on doing something with Fitbit who they recently acquired but android wear is dead and has been for a few years now. I think if you’re on android the galaxy watches are the only thing worth considering. They are decent watches in their own right but don’t compare to the Apple Watch IMO.
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I used to have a square Samsung watch, I much prefer a round watch, I have issue reading text on my S3 frontier.
I might be in the minority but I won't buy another square watch, they are ugly imo, complications look messy on a square.

I think a square watch is more practical for showing information but round watches look better aesthetically.

 

[Klyster]

Oops, I want to say I don''t have an issue reading text on a round phone,(not like text input apparently lol), but yeah, square is more practical but imo looks umm...unfinished? more like a toy, but that's just me.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I quite like the square watches myself. Dare to be different in a sea of Galax--oh wait, all the watches I see are Apple and Fitbit...

 

[Shanghaichica]

I quite like the square watches myself. Dare to be different in a sea of Galax--oh wait, all the watches I see are Apple and Fitbit...

I do see some Samsung watches every now and then but it’s mostly Apple watches and then fitbits.

The best showing for Samsung was last year. I was at soft play with my kids and I saw a couple with Samsung watches.

 

[decafjava]

Oh man, I can see the MR threads now.

"I returned my right eye 15 times because there's dust on the cornea"
"Does your Apple Eye have a yellow tint when you look at a white background?"
"Siri turns my eyes off whenever I keep my eyes shut for more than 5 seconds, WTH?"
"My Eye fell into the toilet and Apple won't replace it..."

"Apple Eyes only available in the U.S. and 5 other select markets." Society goes into full on "Minority Report" mode and you see shady dudes with bags of Eyes willing to perform the procedure for half price and a joint in the areas that Apple doesn't support.

I'll show myself out...

I forgot my restrictions passcode and my Apple eye blocks out every "t and a" I look at!
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[LIVEFRMNYC]

IMO, Google should give Samsung native API support. That's basically the ONLY reason Samsung Tizen watches are not as functionally good as AW.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Actually, its WearOS that's functionally defunct. I found nothing missing on the Galaxy/Tizen side. Maybe maps but that was broken on WearOS a while ago and looking at reddit lately that's still not fixed. "Google" "Wear OS Couldn't start navigation error" and enjoy the read.