Some subtle visual changes make for a nice upgrade
Even though we’ve had access to hardware running Wear OS 3 since August, it’s been difficult to actually see what it looks like. Weird as it may sound, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch4 series remains the only way to experience the latest version of Google’s wearable software, even as we spiral ever close to 2022. If you’ve been curious what a pure AOSP, non-One UI watch running Wear OS 3 might look like, you don’t have to wait until next summer to find out.
Although existing smartwatches from companies like Fossil and TicWatch won’t get updates until sometime next year, Google continues to put out developer previews for that software — all without the added UI changes from Samsung. As Mishaal Rahman detailed on Twitter, a fresh emulator image for Wear OS 3 was recently released online, giving us a much better idea of what to expect next year.
None of the changes on display here will radically shift how you’re already using your watch, but it might make the experience feel just a little more modern. For example, enabled toggles now sport a new gradient, which really helps to highlight active options in the settings menu. Pill-shaped buttons and icons help to match up with what we’ve seen from Android 12’s redesign on phones, while the recent apps list gets a new coat of paint as well.
Finally, a new active shortcut for opening media controls seems perfectly paired with the YouTube Music app that finally arrived on wrists this year. That’s something that also shows up on the Galaxy Watch4 with One UI, but it’s great to know it’s coming to other Wear OS watches next year.
In addition to visual changes, a couple of fresh features are here as well. A “Health Services” option in settings doesn’t do anything right now beyond accepting basic information about the user’s height and weight. Updated developer options and a triple press gesture round out a solid upgrade to current and future non-Samsung watches.
It might be a while before we get to try out a standard version of Wear OS 3 outside of an emulator scenario. That said, a rumored Pixel Watch seems to finally be on the horizon. This time next year, you might be rocking some first-party hardware — complete with the best wearable software Google’s made to date. Make sure to check out Mishaal’s Twitter thread for even more images.
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